Fused-Glass Show Captures Sunlight with Color

Plum Bottom Gallery in Door County recently hosted an opening reception showcasing new additions to fused-glass collections from artists Kellie Hanson and Laurel Grey. The gallery's Plum Bottom Road location features a garden setting where glass stands and sculptures interact with sunlight, flowers, and trees, extending this aesthetic indoors through mosaics and wall panels. The event provided an opportunity for artists and customers to engage in conversations about the art pieces. Kellie Hanson, one of the featured artists, specializes in mosaics, creating art for windows and walls. Her works, such as “Door County Waters” and “By the Lake,” use varying shapes and sizes of hand-cut glass to depict natural scenes, with larger pieces forming elements like the sky and smaller ones mimicking rippling water. Hanson's inspiration for mosaics originated from a stained-glass window in her aunt's home, prompting her to explore this art form. Her artistic focus is deeply influenced by the landscapes and waterscapes of Door County and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Laurel Grey, another artist, is known for her glass leaf strands, which are displayed in rainbow colors and brilliant turquoise throughout the gallery gardens and around the entrance. Grey's motivation for creating these pieces came from a desire to bring nature indoors due to limited opportunities to spend time outside. She transitioned from making flat, painted stained-glass leaves to more dimensional ones, aiming for each leaf to be as unique as those found in nature. Her process involves hand-painting, kiln-firing, drilling, and stringing individual glass leaves into columns. She often incorporates local elements like driftwood and stones from Door County into her designs, and also integrates her leaves into ornaments, tree sculptures, and wall panels. Grey's artistic style is significantly shaped by her childhood experiences in Japan, where she observed the organization of nature in bonsai trees and raked rock gardens. Her visits to glass factories in Japan also influenced her decision to focus on glass as her medium, as she witnessed skilled Japanese artists transforming molten glass into various beautiful objects. Furthermore, Buddhist philosophy, particularly the teaching of "letting go of the outcome," resonates with her approach to working with glass, as the material often reacts in unexpected ways. The versatility of fused glass is highlighted by Grey's leaf strands. In shaded areas or on cloudy days, they illuminate spaces with shiny color, while in direct sunlight, light dances off the leaves, creating vibrant reflections. The rainbow-colored strands exhibit an iridescent quality, symbolizing how different colors combine to form white light. This interplay of glass, color, and light enhances both indoor and outdoor settings, with pieces sparkling and capturing ambient light in any room, offering a whimsical impression of a sunny garden or a reminder of a Door County scene. #FusedGlass #ArtExhibition #PlumBottomGallery #DoorCounty #GlassArt #MosaicArt #NatureInspired #ArtisticProcess #GlassSculptures #FusedGlass #ArtExhibition #PlumBottomGallery #DoorCounty #GlassArt #MosaicArt #NatureInspired #ArtisticProcess #GlassSculptures

53 months ago

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