Tacoma, Wash. (May 20, 2008)— The Museum of Glass announces the schedule for its Sixth Annual Visiting Artist Summer Series which features a different visiting artist at work in the Hot Shop each week. The Summer Series begins on June 25 and will continue for eleven weeks, concluding September 7, 2008.

New this year, Museum visitors and glass enthusiasts can track all the action of the Summer Series from their computers. The Museum of Glass website now features streaming video footage live from the Hot Shop Amphitheater, allowing visitors the ability to extend their Hot Shop experience—by either taking a sneak peek at what they might see before they arrive, or seeing what happens after their visit. “The real-time action is a great tool for first-time visitors, as well as for our members who come to the Hot Shop on a regular basis,” comments Susan Warner, director of public programs. “Our Summer Series artists are here for five days, and our visitors are often curious to see what they might be making on subsequent residency dates. Now they can find out.” Viewing is available during regular Museum hours:
http://www.museumofglass.org/live-glassmaking/watch-the-hot-shop-live/.

The Visiting Artist Summer Series offers Museum visitors a unique opportunity to view the diverse creative processes of glass artists from around the world who come to the Pacific Northwest to work at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. Each summer, MOG invites a selection of these artists to the Hot Shop for 5-day work residencies. The 2008 Summer Series marks the fifth year of collaboration between the Museum of Glass and Pilchuck.

“The Visiting Artist Summer Series is designed to provide artists with a platform for experimentation and development as well as expanding our visitors’ understanding of the creative process,” comments Museum Director Timothy Close. “This program demonstrates just how diverse the medium of glass has become in contemporary art.”

Summer Series artists work with the Museum’s own Hot Shop Team, exploring and demonstrating various glassmaking techniques and styles. Included in each residency is a Conversation with the Artist, a public lecture and slide presentation, at 2 p.m. on Sundays.

About the Artists:

Fritz Dreisbach (Tucson, AZ)
Residency: June 25 – 29
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, June 29, 2 p.m.
Fritz Dreisbach has been called the Johnny Appleseed of the American Studio Glass movement. For more than 40 years, he has acted as a crusader for glassblowing, spreading the excitement, techniques and science of the craft through demonstrations and workshops all over the world. A pioneer of American glass-forming in the 1960s and 70s, Dreisbach has shared his knowledge of glassmaking freely, encouraging countless artists and students to experiment with glass as a medium. Dreisbach was a founder and former president of the Glass Art Society and the recipient of the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. He will be an instructor at Pilchuck Glass School this summer teaching traditional and non-traditional hot and cold glass techniques.

“My glass is a balance between absolute control of the material and the spontaneity of a liquid medium. I always try to show movement and gesture in all my hot-worked glass. For my residency I plan to make large Mongo pieces. I can’t make these pieces everywhere, and the Museum equipment and skilled crew offer a great opportunity.” Dreisbach began his Mongo series in 1979 as a reaction to the tightly controlled, more symmetrical work he made in the mid-1970s.

Einar and Jamex de la Torre (Baja, Mexico and National City, CA)
Residency: July 2 – 6
Conversation with the Artists: Sunday, July 6, 2 p.m.

Brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre’s art combines influences from both high and low culture. This intersection of contrasting elements reaches deep into their identities, which have been profoundly shaped by both their Mexican and American experiences. The de la Torres describe themselves as Mexican-American bicultural artists, influenced by “the morbid humor of Mexican folk art, the absurd pageantry of Catholicism, and machismo” on the one hand, and fascinated by “the American culture of excess” on the other. They do not hesitate to confront preconceived notions about artistic materials, cultural identity and political borders.

This Visiting Artist residency will be the de la Torres’ second at the Museum, following a visit in 2005 concurrent with an exhibition of their work, Einar and Jamex de la Torre: Intersecting Time and Space. They will teach a course, More Manic Mixed Media, at Pilchuck Glass School this summer.

Jiří Harcuba (Prague, Czech Republic)
Residency: July 9 – 13
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.

Jiří Harcuba specializes in portraiture. A renowned engraver and teacher, he uses sculptural and optical effects to create psychological studies of major historical and contemporary figures. His engravings on glass can be seen in museum collections around the world.

Harcuba was born into a glassmaking family in the Czech Republic. He studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and later taught as assistant professor to Czech artist Stanislav Libenský. In 1971, Harcuba was forced to resign for political reasons. He worked in his own studio until 1990 when he was recognized by President Vaclav Havel and appointed director of the Academy. Harcuba lectures and demonstrates internationally. He is a frequent teacher at Pilchuck Glass School and will teach a course, Zengraving, this summer. In 2007, he received the Glass Art Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Chad Holliday (American, living in Czech Republic)
Residency: July 16 – 20
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 20, 2 p.m.

Chad Holliday has been working in glass for over 10 years. He earned an MFA in glass at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a BFA at Emporia State University in Kansas. Holliday was the lead hot shop technician at the Museum of Glass when it first opened in 2002 and has assisted notable artists Paul Marioni, Martin Blank, Dale Chihuly, Charles Parriott and Maya Lin.

Holliday’s residency at the Museum follows a Fulbright Fellowship in the Czech Republic where his research at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenicky Senov focused on glass cutting and engraving—the techniques, history, teaching style and tradition of the Czech glassmakers.

Susanne Jøker Johnsen (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Residency: July 23 – 27
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 27, 2 p.m.

Susanne Jøker Johnsen utilizes traditional Scandinavian design techniques in her work, characterized by an exploration of color, pattern, texture and form. The bowls and vases she creates possess textured and colored surfaces that, when combined with clear crystal, make the objects appear both organic and well defined in form.

Johnsen was trained at the Kosta School in Småland, Sweden and apprenticed with Swedish master Jan-Erik Ritzman. She divides her time between making her own work and teaching at the Glass and Ceramic School in Bornholm, Denmark. Her work can be seen in galleries around Europe and the United States. She will teach ¬a course focusing on Scandinavian design techniques at Pilchuck Glass School this summer.

Susan Plum (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico)
Residency: July 30 – August 3
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 3, 2 p.m.
Susan Plum has lived in both the United States and Mexico and considers herself an American/Mexican with a bicultural experience that has given her an appreciation of folk art that strongly influences her work. She weaves glass to create an elegant interplay of light and color which reflects her passion for life. Her Metamorphosis Series: Tejidos XIII is currently on display in the Museum’s Contrasts: A Glass Primer exhibition, representing the “light” side of the light/heavy pairing.

In 2003, Plum traveled to Patampan, Michoacan, where she saw hundreds of handcrafted clay pineapples in various shapes, sizes and complexity. “My Museum of Glass residency will give me the opportunity to create a body of work inspired by these artisans and incorporating their vision in clay into my vision in glass. I intend to use the pieces as components for installations as well as exhibit them as individual objects of beauty.”

Michiko Miyake (Kanagawa, Japan)
Residency: August 6 – 10
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 10, 2 p.m.
Michiko Miyake earned her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from California College of the Arts. She is a part-time faculty member at Tama University in Tokyo and will teach a course at Pilchuck Glass School in August.

Miyake has been influenced by the interplay of light and shadow in her work. Recently, she became interested in the martial arts and the idea of Ki (chi, energy) and that all things are connected. “I use my hands to create my work. I sometimes feel that my energy coming out from my hands might stay in my artwork. So, I have become interested in how people use their hands.”

During her Museum of Glass residency, Miyake plans to create a series of mold-blown glass human hands. “Instead of casting, which does not transmit Ki energy, I’ve decided to use blown glass, because glass is formed by breathing air into it.” These forms will be used in an upcoming installation of her work.

Dorothy Gill Barnes (Worthington, Ohio)
Residency: August 13 – 17
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 17, 2 p.m.
Dorothy Gill Barnes is a sculptor who uses wood, bark, branches and roots to weave sculptural vessels, often basketlike, that incorporate the unique characteristics in the wood. She will come to the Museum following her artist-in-residence session at Pilchuck Glass School, where she will gather plant life. Her discoveries at Pilchuck will determine the direction of her MOG residency. “I hope to relate to materials in nature in Washington State. My intent is to construct vessels or related objects using materials respectfully harvested from nature—from heavy wood to delicate moss.”

Barnes’ work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Museum of Arts & Design, New York; and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand. She has been selected to work as an artist-in-residence at Pilchuck Glass School in July.

Cork Marcheschi (San Francisco, CA)
Residency: August 20 – 24
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 24, 2 p.m.
Cork Marcheschi is a San Francisco native who has been involved in the fine arts and music scene for over 40 years, incorporating energy, light and humor into his work. He has taught sculpture, critical studies and art history at the University of California at Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Minneapolis College of Art. He currently writes a weekly online column for Fine Art Registry (www.fineartregistry.com).

Marcheschi has had over 130 solo art exhibitions throughout the world and 50 public sculptures “littered about the American landscape.” He most recently completed work for the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore and City Hall Plaza in Reno, Nevada. He will teach ¬a course focusing on public art at Pilchuck Glass School this summer.

David Levi (Corning, New York)
Residency: August 27 – 31
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 31, 2 p.m.
David Levi began his study of glass at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating with a BFA, Levi traveled on scholarship to Sweden and apprenticed with master glassblower Jan-Erik Ritzman, whom he continues to consider his mentor.

In 1985, Levi was a founding partner in Ibex Glass Studio in St. Louis with the mission to make glass with clean geometric shapes and bright colors. He became sole proprietor and moved the studio to Whidbey Island, Washington in 1993. For the past two years, Levi has been working as a designer for Steuben Glass in Corning, New York.

Levi’s work departs from traditional vessels and explores more abstract forms. “The best ideas often seem utterly obvious. In my work I try to strip away the static to reveal the bones. I have a fantasy that I will make the perfect shape, the most perfectly obvious thing, and then no one will be able to resist.”

Michael Fox (Seattle, WA)
Residency: September 3 – 7
Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, September 7, 2 p.m.
Michael Fox received a BFA from the California College of Arts. He moved to Seattle in 1998 where he began his work with local, well-known artists including Dale Chihuly, Benjamin Moore, Dante Marioni, Preston Singletary and Dan Dailey. He continues to work as a glassblower and studio manager for Benjamin Moore, Inc.

Since 1999, Fox has been the owner and curator of Bubba Mavis Gallery, an independent exhibition space in Seattle. His work intertwines psychological issues and semantic absurdities derived from personal history and contemporary life. “I see glass as an inflatable sculptural medium. My work attempts to convey ideas about language and its definition of objects.” In 2007, Fox’s design was selected for the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School Annual Auction centerpieces and he will be an instructor at the school this summer.

The Visiting Artist Program is generously sponsored by Courtyard by Marriott / Tacoma
The Visiting Artist Lecture Series is sponsored by PONCHO.

IMAGES AVAILABLE