When the Elements Came Together (A Look Back at 2008)

February 2008 feels like a lifetime ago in both years and creative chapters. It was towards the beginning of my business and part of a “creativity in glass” glass class.

At the end of the class, we displayed our works in a gallery show where artists were free to submit whatever they wanted. No rules. No required theme. Total creative freedom.

I chose a theme anyway.

I’ve always liked giving my work a sense of cohesion, and for this show I kept coming back to the elements: fire, water, earth, and air. They felt timeless, powerful, and flexible enough to explore in glass. Each one became its own decorative piece, interpreted through color, movement, texture, and mood.

Fire

Fire was all about energy and intensity. Bold color, motion, and a sense of heat. Not literal flames, but that feeling fire gives off when it’s alive and active. Looking back, this piece feels fearless in a way only early work can be. This was probably my favorite of the bunch. I used an ombre background made from frit, going from red to yellow, keeping some texture, then topped it with wiggles of dichroic glass strips to simulate flames.

Water

Water moved in the opposite direction. Calmer, more fluid, more layered. It was about depth and flow; how water can be peaceful one moment and powerful the next. This piece leaned into softness and motion, letting the glass do what glass naturally wants to do. You can see the layers in the glass, just like a tropical ocean isn’t a solid color. And I shaped the top of the glass to mimic undulating waves.

Earth

Earth grounded the collection. Heavier. More solid. More dynamic. This piece was about stability and texture like the feeling of something ancient and rooted. Even now, I’m drawn to work that feels anchored like this. This was the first time I used the strip cutting technique, which uses glass strips on their side, rather than flat. This piece is big and truly heavy! Very grounded.

Air

Air was the lightest of the four. It was more about suggestion than structure. Transparency, space, and movement played a big role here. It was less about what was there, and more about what was felt. How do you show “air” in glass? This bowl was light as a feather, using just strips of an iridized glass that had the open feel of air…and the clear to white color of air.

Coming Together

The fifth piece was the one that brought everything full circle. Instead of standing on its own, it incorporated all four elements — fire, water, earth, and air — in a single work I called Coming Together. It wasn’t planned as a grand finale at first, but it became one naturally. I loved doing the strip cutting so much, that I thought it was a way to convey the elements by incorporating the colors of the other pieces. But each one on its own, but all touching at the center.

Looking back now, I love how instinctive this collection was. I didn’t need a theme;  I wanted one. And that choice says a lot about how I’ve always approached my work: even when given total freedom, I like finding a thread that ties everything together.

Some things really don’t change.