“Lifeforms” is a two-part exhibition coordinated by Robert Mickelsen and inspired by the Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka glass biological models made in the 19th and 20th centuries for the Harvard University’s Botanical Museum.
More information about entry guidelines can be found at both Pittsburgh Glass Center’s website and the Lifeforms website.
If a competition and exhibition weren’t enough, the lead organizer and world renowned artist, Robert Mickelsen will be offering a week long all levels class focused on creating glass Lifeforms July 1-5. Robert’s classes the last several years have all filled to capacity and often had a wait list so we’re dumbfounded that this class still has space available.
The Lifeforms deadline was originally May 1, but it was announced just this week that it would be extended to May 8! That’s a whole extra week to get gorgeous entries in.
To delight and inspire, Robert has graciously shared a selection of the entries that have already been submitted. I’m so impressed by the diverse interpretations of the life in our world- enjoy!
Carol Baum, “Eternal Bloom” Rosa Sinensis - Gardiner, NY
Kimberly Fields, “Courtship” Ramphastos Sulphuratus - Metamora, MI
Jaccie Delaney, “Fossilizations: Lookdown Fish” Selene Vomer - Columbus, OH
Victor Trabucco, “Midnight Orchid” Cattleya Intermedia - Clarence, NY
I’m very fortunate to work at Pittsburgh Glass Center and for nearly 10 years now!
It was 2003 that I ran my first marathon and joined the staff at Pittsburgh Glass Center, two completely independent events that I never realized would intersect 10 years later.
I actually interviewed to get the marketing job at PGC on a platform of expertise in triathlon as proof of my ability to multitask among other special skills that allude me now. Regardless, they bought it.
I think that I was a good influence on my coworkers and became an important member of the team. In 2008, I was invited to go to San Francisco for the Nike Women’s Marathon with our executive director Heather McElwee for her first marathon along with good friends and PGC volunteers Marie and Shelley. It was a great adventure. Everyone finished successfully. I realized how fortunate I was to be among such smart, caring, fit and fun friends at PGC.
I’m excited this year that PGC was selected as an official charity of the Pittsburgh Marathon.
I’m psyched to see even more of my coworkers quickly get on board to participate in everything from the 5K to the marathon. This shows the true team spirit at PGC. It’s the people here that make it such a special place to work and a world-class facility to make art.
Running a 10K to celebrate 10 years at PGC never even crossed my mind. I’m in for the long haul. That’s why I signed up for the marathon. Both my paperweights and my marathon may be wonky, but I’m giving it everything I’ve got! PGC can count on me!
Please support our efforts by making a donation and coming out to cheer us on from the sidelines on May 5.
Paige Ilkhanipour is the Marketing Director at Pittsburgh Glass Center. After working here for nearly 10 years, her enthusiasm for the magic of glass is a testament to the fact that the magic never gets old.
Inspired by how often we hear that a crucial element to Pittsburgh Glass Center’s awesomeness is the staff, we’re starting a new blog series that will feature individual staff members.
Because the staff isn’t the only human component to our success, we’ll be starting up a series about volunteers, board members, instructors and students as well.
This week, we’re starting off with a staffer who won’t be here much longer. Whether he’ll be heading off to grad school to get his MFA in Glass or traveling cross county for a few months is yet to be determined. But come June, the talented and friendly Billy Guilford will be leaving PGC.
Cue sadfaces.
Billy came to PGC as a technical apprentice in 2010 and continued on as a full time studio technician after that. He’s taught several advanced glassblowing classes including ones focused on specific techniques like color application, cane and incalmo. He’s also done countless demonstrations for the public (maybe you saw one or two?) at our monthly Hot Jams all the while continuing to develop his own stunning body of work.
Before he leaves us, let’s get to know him a little better.
Where are you from?
Cleveland, Ohio
How did you get into glass?
I started out with ceramics, and then at Alfred I took a Hot 1 class and got hooked.
Who and/or what informs/influences your work?
Living in the Pittsburgh has been very influential. I am also very interested in the idea that we are all connected in one way or another. I am also very inspired by Venetian cane work, and classic Venetian forms.
Describe your favorite piece you’ve made.
I am excited about a new series I call moon towers. I am using the optic quality of the glass to distort the inside cane patterns.
If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with the time?
Travel, and enjoy the outdoors. Some activities would include heli skiing in Alaska, rock climbing in Italy, and surfing in Australia.
When you have 30 minutes of free time, what do you do with it?
Research
Dogs or cats?
DOGS
Describe yourself in 3 words.
Calm and Collected
What are you going to miss most about Pittsburgh?
PGC - all the people here, and the studio facilities. I will also miss the city, and biking to Pirates games in the summer.
The next time you are around, say hi to Billy and wish him luck on his next adventure!
I am so excited to see more glass at Phipps, especially because its all hand crafted in the region. Beginning on April 27, glass will glow in the gardens at Phipps Conservatory for the Summer Flower Show 2013! Featuring the creations of 11 talented artists working in the Pittsburgh region, each display will incorporate delicate, dazzling and whimsical forms surrounded by colorful blooms.
I’ve been surprised to catch some of the artists at work here in the studios at PGC. Glass exhibitions are magical to me because I rarely see the artists at work during the day. Either they are magic (they pretty much are) or work feverishly in the wee hours of the day and night to create these amazing works of art.
I’ve been watching a life-size wooly mammoth take shape in our studios for a while. It is going to be extraordinary. Life-size! The skull alone is almost bigger than me. Chris and Travis have meticulously been in the hot shop blowing each vertebrae and stretching and sculpting each rib to precision. See it and believe it.
Jason Forck has also been hard at work creating a new installation of Chinese Lanterns for display in the gardens. They are exquisite. I wonder how they will be displayed?
I haven’t seen Daviea Davis but I’ve seen her mosaic towers of light on Facebook. These will really come to life at night in the gardens.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of these works on display in the gardens and experiencing the others for the first time. See a full list of the artists and get more details about what they are creating.
Paige Ilkhanipour is the Marketing Director at Pittsburgh Glass Center. After working here for nearly 10 years, her enthusiasm for the magic of glass is a testament to the fact that the magic never gets old.
Every year, Salem Community College hosts the International Flame Conference which brings the flameworking community together for master demonstrations and panel discussions. The 2013 conference was held this past weekend March 22-24 and our own flame instructor, Melissa Fitzgerald was in attendance.
When she returned, she was eager to share what she enjoyed and what she learned and of course, photos!
Why do you think it is important to attend the IFC?
It brings the flame community together from all around the world, and is a great opportunity to make new friends/connections. It’s a chance to talk with others about what they are working on, new ideas and possible collaborations. You can also learn about new products on the market and learn more about products that are already on the market, new colors and color combinations. Salem Community College and the Samuel H. Jones Glass Education Center is an amazing facility with great program(s) - the conference is a great opportunity to visit this place that every flameworker should visit at some point. Watching demonstrations from talented artists, taking in those subtle how to moves, learning what tools others favor and getting turned on to new techniques is just an awesome way to spend a weekend.
Who is one person you met that you thought was a valuable connection?
Vittorio Costantini and his translator Emilio Santini told the best stories of growing up on Murano and Burano. Aside from meeting Paul Stankard, I met upcoming artists/hobbyists, masters, instructors, distributors and more. It’s difficult to narrow it down, every new person I met was great and a valuable connection, even if only a new friend.
What was your favorite thing that you saw or learned at the conference?
Abe Fleishman from Northstar Glassworks and Jahnny Rise’s demo on Sunday wins hands down. They gathered Borosilicate from a crucible and hand pulled colored tubing. Abe is one of the leading innovators in the glass color world for flameworking. He had everyone’s attention as he gathered borosilicate glass as if he was in the hot shop, triple dipped gathers on the end of a modestly sized piece of boro tubing and because it held so much heat he was able to work it into the proper shape for pulling. Listening to his experiences from when he first began, to his trial and error of today - it was very inspiring. We all need to continually push forward.
Melissa Fitzgerald teaches beginning through advanced flameworking classes, at Pittsburgh Glass Center throughout the year. She frequently demonstrates at our monthly Hot Jams.
Pittsburgh Glass Center is thrilled to announce our new website. If you follow us on Facebook, you were likely refreshing your page many times on Monday before the new site came live in the late afternoon. As with most things in life, not everything went as planned on launch day and yet I’m still told by the awesome guys at Bearded that it was what they would call a relatively smooth launch. The stress and anticipation we experienced were all perfectly normal, so to that we say YAY!
The way technology works these days, and the rapid rate of growth and development, it’s a true wonder that our now old site served us so well for 5 whole years. With the increase in functionality, flexibility and adaptability in this new site, we look forward to it lasting us another 5 years.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be updating and tweaking certain features to optimize as much as possible to make your experience on the site as smooth as possible. We worked tirelessly to get it pretty close to perfect before launch, but we know there’s still work to do. We ask for your patience while we transition into this new exciting web presence. Please do let us know if you find things that aren’t working or could use improvement—your feedback is invaluable.
To learn more about the exciting features implemented on the new site, check out the project page on Bearded’s site.
This development of this new website was generously supported by The Emma Clyde Hodge Foundation.
Over 100 pieces of glass art were donated for this year’s auction. 22 of those pieces were curated into the Live Auction by Executive Director Heather McElwee. The staff was asked to pick a favorite piece from the live auction, assuming cost, size and any other limiting factors were eliminated. The work here is stellar and to choose a favorite was a tough task but several staff members rose to that challenge!
Heather McElwee, Executive Director
Jeremy Lepisto- Central Symmetry
“I love the simplicity in his work and the reference to architectural elements, plus this piece in particular reminds me of Pittsburgh’s bridges.”
Jason Forck, Youth Education Coordinator
Benjamin Moore- Cobalt Interior Fold
“I like the way Ben combines classic technical skills with a modern sense of design to create these interior fold vessels.”
Brian Engel, Studio Coordinator
Benjamin Moore- Cobalt Interior Fold
“I’ve been eyeballing this piece from the time it came out of the box and dreaming about how wonderful it would be to have it as a part of my collection. For me this piece is a constant reminder of the bridge built by Mr. Moore between Venetian technique and contemporary American design. We as glass artists are forever in debt to Ben Moore for his contributions to the Studio Glass Movement and Venetian connection, and this piece stands as a constant reminder.”
It’s no wonder this Benjamin Moore piece was a favorite—it has already sold at the Buy It Now price.
Billy Guilford, Studio Technician
Janusz Pozniak- Reticello Veronese
“Aesthetically the Veronese is perfect - the proportions are dead on, and as a glass artist I appreciate that kind of thing.
Paige Ilkhanipour, Marketing Director
Rik Allen & Shelley Muzylowski-Allen- Super Mouse Saves the Day!
“It would go perfectly with my Zoot Zipper by Rik Allen.”
Sam Laffey, Marketing Associate
Lyla Nelson, Botanicals
“I love that this piece is nature inspired—most of the artwork I own is nature inspired and organic so it just fits well. I also love the juxtaposition of muted and bright colors and the deep and detailed texture.”
Becky Smith, Instructor
Jeff Mack- Guggenheim Goblet
“This piece has so much history wrapped up in all it’s detail and difficulty. I love that I got to see Jeff make it at PGC when he was here last summer.”
So, now we ask you, if cost, size, etc was no issue, what is your favorite? What would you most like to have in your home?
All photos by Nathan J. Shaulis.
Did Summer go fast for you? It went really fast here at PGC! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not really the end of summer yet—I mean, we have summer hours through September 4, right? But yesterday signified the end of our summer session of classes which for us is a big deal. The summer session of classes is the only time of year where the whole building operates in a different way and at a different pace. We see students and instructors come from all over the world to work here in our studios and really creative wonderful things happen.
Check out some more of the amazing photos captured during these classes this summer!
But, now official PGC Fall doesn’t start until mid September. What are we up to until then? This is down time for our studios and equipment when ovens are cool and our technicians can get in and do routine maintenance as well as complete seriously needed repairs so that everything is ready to go for the aforementioned fall class season. You might be surprised to see what goes into cleaning and maintaining of our thousand pound hot glass furnaces—someone has to actually crawl inside to do the work!
Meanwhile, our office staff fields calls and emails to answer questions for people planning to sign up for fall classes, as well as plans the event of the year, our annual fundraiser Art on Fire Celebration & Auction! This year our theme is super heroes as we celebrate the artists and supporters that have helped PGC thrive for its first 10 years and help us to prepare for the next decade! If you’ve never attended this party in the past, it’s really a treat with tasty food and drinks and up close views of incredible glass art. Plus all the money raised supports PGC’s education and exhibition programs!
And of course, even though the building is quiet during this hiatus between summer and fall, we’re still open to the public during our normal summer hours (M 10-4, T-Th 10-7, Fr-Sat 10-4, closed Sunday) so visitors can see the amazing 10x10x10 exhibition in our gallery. It’s been lauded as one of the best shows in PGC’s history so you really can’t miss it—it’s up through September 17th!
If the current weather holds out, the name of this event will certainly prove to be very apropos, and really we weren’t taking a huge gamble on that scheduling this event in late July in Pittsburgh, were we?
So far our 10th anniversary celebrations have been amazing. We kicked it off with the 10th fundraiser Art on Fire Celebration & Auction in October of 2010 raising over $100,000 in one night to support the artistic and educational programs that we offer throughout the year. Then, we followed up with some Xtreme class offerings, and number “10” themed exhibitions. If you haven’t yet seen the current 10x10x10 exhibition featuring 220 artists, it’s really not to be missed. If you can’t make it in to see it in person, there is a digital catalog showcasing all the work thanks to our favorite local photographer Nathan J. Shaulis.
It’s all been building up to this big birthday BBQ on July 23 called Hot & Sticky!
Some of the exciting elements of this killer party are:
Tasty Treats
Corn lollipops, bourbon shrimp, finger lickin’ ribs, pulled pork and more from 2 Brothers BBQ
Sweet treats from Dave & Andy’s Homemade Ice Cream
Cool Refreshments
Your favorite microbrews and mine from East End Brewing
Tasty twisted cocktails from Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka and FUZE
Caffeine to keep you going all night long from Voluto Coffee
Xciting Entertainment
Burnt Asphalt Family invites you to eat food from spinning towers of fire, poured glass grills, and hot glass sculpture!
Fiery feats by Andrew the Impaled
Rhythm and beats to dance the night away from The Allegheny Rhythm Rangers
And well, that’s just not all!
Don’t forget with a VIP ticket (limited to 100) you get private access to the Verde Lounge a cool space overlooking the party where you’ll get to be the first to sample the creations from our soon to be neighbor Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina and their exciting chef, as well as private demos, and a special Hot & Sticky gift!
We can’t even begin to thank all of our supporters over our first 10 years or express how excited we are to be able to commemorate this occasion with such a unique and fun party. The best anniversary present ever would be for you all to come have a great time helping us celebrate and looking forward to the next years!
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There is an amazing number of people who go into creating and executing an event like this. While many are mentioned above, the complete (so far) list follows. Please remember the people and businesses and support them as they have supported us!
Dollar Bank, Sampson Morris Group, Verde Mexican Kitchen & Cantina, Karen & Daniel Johnese, Lea Simonds, Violet Soffer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Songwhale, FUZE Beverage, WYEP, Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka, East End Brewing Company, Whole Foods, Nerds Behind the Lens, La Dorita Dulce de Leche, KNOTdance, Pittsburgh Marshmallow Factory, Voluto Coffee, The Yoga Hive, Richard Parsakian, Laurie Moser, Brian Supler
It’s shameful that there hasn’t been any posting here on this blog since November—we’re so sorry! We’ve had so much going on that blogging about those things fell by the way side.
Good things that have happened:
A record number of you signed up for Winter and Spring classes and workshops- go you!
A record number of you applied for Summer Scholarships and we gave out a record number of Summer Scholarship Awards- go you and go us!
The TENacity show was a huge hit!
Good things yet to come:
Gardens of Glass Spring Sale is THIS WEEKEND!
Summer classes haven’t started yet. We’re consistently told it’s one of our best instructor line-ups yet. Many classes still have space. Check them out! Oh, and we’re offering payment plans which we’ve never done before, email saml@pittsburghglasscenter.org for details.
10x10x10 is coming soon. (May 6 to be exact) The Hodge Gallery will be filled with artwork by over 200 artists from around the world. The tech staff has built over 150 new pedestals for this show. It’s the 30th show we’ve had in the gallery over 10 years and it’s the most ambitious to date as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. Not to be missed!
Hot & Sticky is going to be a great community party at PGC on July 23 with special demos, music and entertainment. Learn more about this exciting celebration of PGC’s 10 years and it’s supporters in an upcoming blog post!
Pittsburgh is Art Day of Giving is just like last fall’s Day of Giving, but only for arts organizations. All donations (at least $15) made through the Pittsburgh Gives website on May 11, 2011 will be matched with a portion of a $500,000 pool. Don’t miss this opportunity to make a big impact with a small donation!
We promise to do better about sharing this info with you in a timely manner. Don’t hesitate to give us ideas on what you’d like to hear about in this forum!
