2019: Results of the Year

The year 2019 was the first creative year after four years of depression. I finally started to feel pleasure from creating with glass again. I am quite pleased with what I have created this year, so allow me to present you with the results. If you do not see the logic between these works, do not worry about it. Most importantly, I see it. This year is special because I started to experiment with glass once again. For those interested, the results of the first 15 years of my artistic career with glass and my story can be found here. 

Starry Night (story here). I for the first time worked with medium sized frit. The town below is done with glass powder. 

Homo Explorer (story here). It is a continuation of my work with regards to drawing with glass powder. I am quite pleased with this work. It is a very beautiful glass work. 

Sun. Stained glass. Sun, is a translation from arabic of the word “shamsa”. That is the name of the illuminated 1338 Koran decoration which is covered in gold leaf and painted pigments. It can be found in the library of Dublin, you can see it here. Both the original picture and my work are not symmetrical but close to it. I wanted to see how it would look in stained glass. I am pleased with this work. 

Ornamental Cat. Unfortunately, this work blew up in the kiln. I worked a fairly long time on it. When I saw this self-portrait of Yayoi Kusama, it shook me to the depth of my soul. 

This cat is a projection of my admiration for her. Kusama-san, is a female artist with a mental disorder. She is the richest of all female artists in the world. She is 90 years old and she works daily in her workshop. She is my role model. I decided to show you my non-fused work to illustrate how beautiful it is. It pains me that it did not work out. It was supposed to be my finest work yet. I hope to someday recreate it again. 

Flying Ship. I, with great pleasure, have made another sailing ship. The last time I made a sailing ship was in 2005. It was a long time ago… two lifetimes ago. I wanted to re-experience that feeling of making the sailing ship again. I really like sailing ships. This time, it is flying from night to day towards the sun. This time around, I worked under the wing of a professional. Rock Laplante came up with the idea of the lines in the background. I had a completely different idea from his, but I am very satisfied with how this work turned out. I managed to retain the pattern in the glass for the background. 

Road of Pilgrim (story here). I am continuing the experiments with the technique of drawing with glass powder. This time around I made non-repeating brush strokes, essentially a complex ornament. I have never done this before. I wanted to reach a point where on the painting everything is in motion, a star flickers, an angel flies in the sky, shrubs and cypress sway and the road runs. If you take a step back from the monitor, you will better see the movement. I felt very free when applying these brush strokes. In this work, there is a whole lot of me. 

Medieval Town. I really love making these works. In my blog, I have a full post about medieval towns (only in russian) here. It takes a really fine hand; it is truly the creation of a miniature. I work with a thin needle and practically count the particles of powder to create these thin lines. This is my test to see how well my hands work. I am showing the work in progress. This town will be laid upon beautiful pink glass. I am very satisfied with the thickness of the lines; they are even finer than in my work Homo Explorer. The work should turn out as fine as lace. Showing the status as of today.