Judith Conway | |
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Bio
& Artist Statement, Exhibitions & Awards | Teaching
Schedule
I have been captivated by glass for as long as I remember. I spent my teenage years and first year of college in Europe, and spent many hours studying the ancient cathedrals and their glorious windows. I first started creating with glass mosaics, then stained glass, and then learned about glass fusing in the early 1980s. My education in glass has included workshops with many masters of the medium, including Albinas Elkus, Narcissus Quagliata, Paul Dufour, Roger Thomas, Richard La Londe and Linda Ethier. I opened my first professional glass studio in 1978. My commercial commissions include a series of three sculptures for the Housing Initiative Project, Hayattsville, MD (2004), a glass portrait of Nick Altrock, for the City of Chico, IL, for Mayor Washington (1984), a chapel memorial window for St. Nicholas Catholic Church, Laurel, MD (1984) and a chapel window for the Greater Laurel-Beltsville Hospital, Laurel, MD (1978). My teaching career began in 1975 and includes classes and workshops in all aspects of cold and warm glass, in the US and internationally. I greatly enjoy sharing with others what I have learned and discovered. In 2001 Kevin OToole, a fellow artist, and I opened Vitrum Studio, a warm glass resource center, gallery and teaching facility that has become a nationally and internationally known studio. Our mission is to make Vitrum Studio the best East Coast instructional facility and to foster glass art innovation. I have also taught internationally at Creative Glass in the UK and Switzerland, Vytrum Studio in Switzerland, and Glass Forum in Norway. I always enjoy discovering new artists and new work and writing about it. I research and write for industry publications, and have been a contributing editor for Glass Craftsman magazine since 1993.
For the past several years I have been focusing on my Portal series, building a body of work with the underlying themes of nature and the elements, which I hope will evoke an emotional response from the viewer. I create abstracted representations of both the minute details and the distant vistas caught in brief snapshots that portray my personal sense of place and time. I want to examine and capture the ephemeral phenomena of unique light and colors, the rich textures and distinct shapes that make up the changing landscapes of the passing seasons. My strong commitment to our obligation for stewardship of the land and my love of the outdoors are compelling forces in my work.
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© Judith Conway