Simply put, Seattle artist Cappy Thompson paints stories on glass. Gathering the Light celebrates the story of glass blowing on an epic scale. The piece, which measures 11 1/2-feet high by 15-feet wide, depicts an elaborate landscape of colorful vignettes from a mythical world of glassmakers. Trumpet blowing fish, an entourage of visitors and a footbridge leading to the Temple of Muses allude to the Museum and commemorate its first anniversary.

Cappy Thompson (American, b. 1952)
Gathering the Light, 2003
Blown sheet glass panes, reverse-painted with vitreous enamels, laminated onto stainless steel
138 x 180 inches
Collection of the Museum of Glass,
made possible by a gift from George F. Russell, Jr.
Photo by Al Abbott

Thompson reverse-painted Gathering the Light in the grisaille technique of gray-tonal painting used for stained glass since the Middle Ages. Located in the Grand Hall near the entrance, this captivating work of art welcomes visitors to the Museum.”

Gathering the Light
Grand Hall Installation by Cappy Thompson
Written by Nancy Goyert, October 2003 Bits of Frit

The new addition to the Grand Hall was unveiled at the Crystal Ball. Seattle artist, Cappy Thompson designed and created the 12’ high and 15’ wide triptych, “Gathering the Light,” is a commissioned piece to commemorate the first anniversary of the Museum. IT is a story about glassmaking. Three muses (the one with the horns is Dale Chihuly) shower inspiration upon a land of glassmakers. The furnace in the center provides the molten materials for the glassblower, the glass engraver and the glass painter (Cappy with her dog). The mermaid is the glass collector, the trumpet blowing fish are welcoming the visitors (in the boat). The Temple of Muses reached by the footbridge alludes to the Museum of Glass.

The artist stated, “It is an object that practices what is preachers. It gathers the light and reflects it back to us in a jeweled vision of hope and vision.”

Cappy Thompson gave a slide lecture of her work in vessels and stained glass. She studied painting and printmaking at Evergreen State College (1976 BA). She worked at a glass studio the summer of 1975 moving to Seattle in 1984 where she was an Artist in Residence at Pilchuck. Cappy credits Flora Mace with giving her a vessel to paint. Form 1987 to 2000 she has been a faculty member at Pilchuck teaching her glass painting. The traditions and techniques of this process date back to ancient Greece and Medieval Europe. On her website (cappythompson.com) you can view her painted vessels, as well as the window wall she just completed at the Sea-Tac Airport (new South Concourse) titled, “I Was Dreaming of Spirit Animals.” It is 33’ high and 90’ wide. Her images are inspired by mythology, fairy tales, folklore, Japanese woodblocks, Persian miniatures and Indian paintings. In the 1990ss her themes became more personal. She painted her family, her dog and herself in autobiographical fantasies.

Now for the process: The 54 glass panes were blown by Fremont Antique Glass. (She does not blow the glass. Ben Moore, Dante Marioni and other do that for her.) She created the image, dividing it up into the 54 blocks. She puts the sketched image down on the front of the glass panel and with vitreous black paint and sable brushes creates the black lines, called tracey, on the back of the glass.

The work is then fired for the first time. To create this Middle Ages technique called grisaille, a wash of black paint called the matt, is applied over the tracery. Using special shaped bristle brushes made from street sweeper brooms, she removes some of the wash by pouncing. This creates texture/pattern and tonality made permanent when it fired the second time. Finally, she makes a watercolor painting to test the final colors. The painted used for the color is made from ground glass and metal oxides. The piece is fired a third and final time. The color becomes brilliant and transparent. The last step is affixing the panels of glass to 3 sheets of stainless steel with an epoxy type process developed in Germany. Aaron Welch filmed the process and will be producing a video for the Museum.

Finally a quote by Cappy about the general message she would like to share with people from an article in GlassArt (magazine) from Jan./Feb. 1997 issue (on her website): “I’m on the path to beauty. When the goodness of an object’s form and contact grabs your attention, arouses your emotion and involves your intellectually—that’s the experience of beauty. Seeing something beautiful is good for you. I try to create that experience by designing and painting vessels which, in my own way, affirm the beauty of life, of love and of spirit.”

Learn more about Cappy Thompson by visiting her website at www.cappythompson.com