On 20th February, Anna Mlasowsky delivered a presentation in the latest of the series of Artists' Talks at Sunderland University. Anna is a 28 year old, German-born artist who graduated from the Danish Design School, in Bornholm, Denmark in 2011. During her degree studies, she had study exchanges in Finland, Sweden and Japan and scholarships in the USA. Initially, her glass blowing expressed aspects of the human body, then, in 2009, she created a ‘stop-motion’ film piece about her family roots, entitled 'Heritage 2009'. Inspired by her Grandmother’s spinning wheel and family traditions, the film shows Anna using the wheel to spin molten glass ‘thread’ onto bobbins. Anna observes that glass tools haven’t changed much for centuries, but what we can achieve with them has. So her work has taken her on a journey of exploration about pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved. ‘X-Ray 2010’ is about glass objects that have been blown and then scanned, to produce interesting negative and positive shapes. In ‘Tension 2010’ she explores how different glasses are not always compatible, and sets about combining two which aren’t - yet don’t break - into a series of objects which can be viewed through Polaroid lenses, revealing a myriad of stress interference colours. Stress in glass is normally something to be avoided. Instead, Anna embraces and controls it in her work. As time went on, she became increasingly puzzled by the term ‘hand-made’ glass. Her definition is that most hand-made glass is actually ‘tool- made’. She wondered what would happen if something were truly ‘hand-made’. She heated window glass and, with asbestos mittens, manipulated and contorted it into intriguing shapes, like folds in material. In ‘Circular Motion’ - a piece now in Germany’s Museum of Glass Art - she blew bubbles, then tried to get them off centre and collapsed them, in a controlled way, resulting in beautiful shapes. Anna admits to being quite a solitary person and often travels and lives alone. She realised that she was mostly communicating with family and friends via the internet and Skype, which she felt largely reduced her to a head-and-shoulders pixel portrait. This led to her producing a stop-motion piece called ‘3429 Images’ in which these portraits montage into a noisy, intimate, 24/7 slice of her life. She followed this with ‘From Eye To Ear 2011’, where she pressed her face against pieces of glass, making them dirty with fingerprints, skin, natural oils which she then fires in. In this blurry self-portrait, she examines her role as a remote, pixellated, technology-driven individual.

This led to ‘Silence 2011’, a cool, calm, contemplative work, incorporating blown and sandblasted vessels, and images of fog. She finds fog appealing, because of its density and ability to deaden sound. She largely works with clear glass and a monochrome palette, which lends itself well to her subject matter.  ‘Still Life 2011’ was inspired by the influence of the elements on materials and the Fukushima disaster (when an earthquake and tsunami produced a seismic shift in Japan’s tectonic plates). ‘Synergy 2011’ uses fused glass powders and enamels to create small panels that evoke ideas of earth, environment and erosion. In these works, Anna reflects on the impact of nature and how we are often powerless to influence or change it.  “I’m not a creator any more, I’m an observer” she says. “I just arrange the parts.” Control is Anna’s watchword. In works like ‘Point of Inflection’, she uses sheets of broken glass, to show how the controlled application of force influences the way that glass breaks. Again, she was told that you couldn’t really use the ‘broken bits’, but she chooses to, claiming that “deliberately breaking the glass in a controlled way opens up new possibilities.” She makes moulds from Styrofoam, fibreglass and resins used in the aerospace industry on which to slump and form glass. By layering glass shards and colouring the edges, outlines become like lines in an original drawing; broken mirrors reflect the environment and create a new one. In ‘Sound Visions 2011’, Anna explores the way sound can be turned into movement, then shapes. Sound vibrations agitate glass powder sprinkled on special kiln paper. These are then fired, to create delicate patterns reminiscent of water and waves. She is now doing further exploration into sound and silence, creating fused glass powder ‘sound structures’. After her talk, Anna demonstrated some of her techniques to us in a short workshop, revealing a simple but effective approach that suggests she sets out not to ask the question “why”, but more often “why not?”

Anna recently had a solo show at the Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark and is currently working on a show in Sweden. Her work is already in German, Danish, Japanese and American collections. She seems happy to continue to break all the rules, to create original installations with meaningful narrative, and her reputation as a glass artist of international standing is growing. She is definitely one to watch.

Helen Whittaker is an award-winning designer and maker of stained glass windows and architectural sculptures in glass and copper.  She uses figurative glass painting and traditional glazing techniques combined with geometric designs and abstract forms.  She gained a BA (Hons) from Sunderland in three-dimensional design in Glass and Ceramics, then an MA in Visual, Islamic and Traditional Arts from the Prince of Wales Institute for Architecture.  She is also an Associate of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and a Craft Scholar of the Prince’s Foundation.  Helen has won several awards including the Hancock Medal for High Achievement and a commission through the Stevens Competition run by the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass.  As well as managing her own portfolio, she has been associated with York’s prestigious Barley Studio since 1998.  The studio is well known for stained glass creation, conservation and restoration.  In Helen’s talk to us on the 6th February, she described many of her past achievements as well as current and future projects.  But, most meaningfully, she shared 7 important tips from her practice for us to consider:
 
1.  History of the building
2.  Architectural space selected for the windows
3.  Relationship between the window and those who use the building
4.  Light and the aspect of the window within the building
5.  Purpose of the window within the building
6.  Structural limitations
7.  Relationship between the window and other works of art

Relating specific briefs, she then presented examples of work that demonstrated each area of advice.  She explained, for example, how considering the history of the building had been important in tackling 14 windows, each 6’ high, in the Lady Chapel, Ely Cathedral.  The use of lilies and circular patterns had helped to recreate a 14th century look.  In St Peter & Mary’s Church, Stowmarket, she looked at the architectural space that had been selected for the windows.  The sequence of four seasons, depicting Spring/Water; Summer/Fire; Autumn/Earth and Winter/Air was positioned to balance and complement the window dimensions and architectural design.  In creating a commemorative window for the Andrews family in St James’ Chapel, Highgate Cemetery, Helen had to consider the relationship between the chapel and three generations of the family, who had lived in Highgate village for over a hundred years.  A commission for the RAF Club in 2008 required thinking about the aspect of the window within the building and aiming to get the window to come alive as much as possible without much natural lighting.  The windows were quite dark, so Helen relied on gilding and metallic work as well as diagonal design to lift the eye, to focus on key content such as the RAF motto and emblem.  Other equally important factors involved looking at the purpose of a window within a building (such as the one at Holme Cultram Abbey in 2012, which commemorates the lives of a brother and sister killed in a car crash); as well as a window’s structural attributes and limitations (such as at St Ethelburga’s Centre, London, almost destroyed by an IRA bomb and then reconstructed: Helen’s figure of St Ethelburga is seen moving through the window, uniting shards of flying glass in a gesture of harmony and hope).  Finally, Helen advised that the relationship of the window with other works of art already in the building also has to be a prime consideration.  When creating sculptural pieces for Beverley Minster’s Retro-Quire and working on The Pilgrim Window, in 2004, Helen had to be conscious of the minster’s long architectural and artistic tradition, in the Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular Style.  An intricately carved screen was designed by a famed Victorian architect, Sir George Gilbert Scott, and carved by James Elwell.  Helen’s response was to use a more abstract approach, different from her usual figurative style yet sympathetic to the existing artwork.

Despite her usual ecclesiastical subject matter, Helen describes herself as spiritual, but not a specifically religious person.  She says her subjects help her raise her aspirations as well as consciousness.  Much of Helen’s work is done in collaboration with other practitioners, be they stained glass artists, architects or technicians.  Her talk imparted plenty of practical advice, but she finished by inviting us follow three more rules that she tries to live by: 1) enjoy what you do; 2) don’t be subject to fashion; and 3) always follow your heart.  Wise words from a master of her art!

On the same evening, we heard from Kate Jones of Gillies Jones, a glass practice based at Rosedale Abbey, on the North York moors. Kate and her partner Stephen Gillies operate from a studio in the village, making artwork to their own design, by hand. Stephen is the glassmaker, using a highly skilful Swedish technique known as 'overlay', whilst Kate has adapted her visual skills from fine art to glass. Kate designs the artwork, decorating pieces by sand-blasting and, more recently, a diamond lathe. Kate grew up on a council estate in London so, for her, there is a special enchantment in living in the rural isolation of the North York Moors, where each farmer’s field can tell its own story: a story that you can see depicted in their work. They have a clear idea of how they want the finished glass to look and use what they describe as a ‘defiantly decorative’ style, employing bright colours and graphic patterns. Their work can be found in both major collections around the world, including the V&A, Ebeltoft Glass Museum and Dan Klein and Alan Poole’s private collection. They also lecture and are part of the Walpole Crafted mentorship programme, a series of educational workshops aimed at helping crafts businesses to develop their entrepreneurial skills and target the British luxury industry. With Arts Council funding, their studio has played host to visiting glass masters such as Tobias Mohl in 1998 and Janusz Pozniak in 2003. Pozniak gave a series of demonstrations entitled “Rubare con gli occhi” or “Steal With Your Eyes”. This title derives from the Venetian glass tradition, when the master at his work would not advise, teach or even speak to the apprentice. Instead, it was incumbent upon the pupil to watch, learn and practice in their own time. In effect, they had to ‘steal’ the skill with their eyes, then make it their own with their hands.

Kate gave us a brief history of their own ‘apprenticeships’ in glass. Stephen started by training at Stourbridge College of Art, then at Wolverhampton University. He worked for a while in the Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark and with Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg in Switzerland. His glass apprenticeship led to studying and working with masters such as Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Josiah McElheney, Jan Erik Ritzman and Richard Marquis, making Stephen the craftsman he is today.  Kate trained in painting, then moved to glass design and decoration at the International Glass Centre, Brierley Hill, Dudley. She later travelled to India with the British Council on a research project.  She brings a sense of subtle pattern and design to their work, especially in graphic decoration.

Since 1994, Kate and Stephen have worked in partnership, in both life and business. Their ‘signature’ piece is a beautiful vessel form, based on the horse chestnut seed-pod, which they call “Aesculus”. Their style is all about proportion, form, design, cutting and movement. From their small studio, they produce world-acclaimed, award-winning work, for galleries, collections and commissions, but also run small workshops and hold two studio exhibitions a year in the main gallery. Recently, they have made pieces for an exhibition for the North York Moors National Park, and the beauty, romance and remoteness of their rural location was key in informing their work.  Concluding her talk, Kate had plenty of advice for us too. In some ways, she said, you need more tenacity than you do talent: her message was for us to keep ploughing our furrow and keep our integrity intact. “If a gallery says no, always try again; never accept rejection”, she urged. I promise to always follow that advice!

Claire Todd: "The compulsion to make"
In the first of two artists’ talks last Wednesday, we met sculptor and scenographer Claire Todd, whose work combines elements of sculpture, performance, film, costume, drawing and print.  Following a BA in Fine Art Sculpture at Northumbria University (1994) and an MA in Scenography at St Martins, London (1995), Claire graduated in 1999 from the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam.  Artist residencies have taken her around England, Aberdeenshire, Prague, Rome and Arizona.  She has also exhibited widely too, in Holland, Belgium and Germany.  Claire is now studying for her PhD at Sunderland and she shared with us the challenges she is currently facing of balancing research with the “compulsion to make”.  Working on film and with performers, there is a sense of the unreal, ethereal and emotional about her work.  She explores a merging of the senses with scenic landscape through site specific installations, to see its effect on embodiment.  She makes costumes for her carnival-like performers using vivid colour, ornament and stitches; her people, like her drawings, are full of motion and activity.  The movement of life is a theme very much at the heart of her work, which she described in the talk with great fondness and affection. One project, 'Oso Bay' (2008) involved an ex-marine who hurls a series of aluminium Frisbees, cast from marsh grasses, into a mud plain in South Texas. Claire filmed their flight and subsequent fall, capturing the way they connect the earth to sky in one brief moment.  In another, 'The Majorette', an acrobat stands by the banks of the River Tiber, spinning a stick lit with fire at both ends, perpetually keeping things alive and moving.  I found Claire’s talk sensitive and evocative, as she helped us glimpse the magical world that she creates, a world of movement, drama and performance.

Thomas Stoller: "Altering perceptions of daily experiences"
The second speaker was Thomas Stoller, a ceramic artist originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He started using clay in 2009 as an undergraduate and was soon hooked, immediately liking the way it responds to the user’s touch.  He happily set about making mugs and cups in bright colours and designs.  After graduating, he went to Turkey for six months, and absorbed himself in their ceramic tile making tradition.  On returning, he gained a residency at the Moravian Tile Works in Philadelphia.  Before long, he was off on his travels once more, this time to Jingdezhen, China, the one-time porcelain capital of the world.  He was fascinated to find that over 70,000 people in the city are still associated with the ceramics industry.  One of the photographs he showed us during his talk pictured him in Jingdezhen, standing in an amazing giant ceramic vessel, larger even than himself.  By 2010, he was tackling his MA in Morgantown, West Virginia.  He could now acknowledge that, for him, the making part of the ceramics process was easy: what’s difficult, he admits, is getting down to the ideas.  So he started a daily ‘journal’ recording daily thoughts and feelings in words and images.  In time, he was able to use its content to inspire a more introspective style of expression, capturing something of his inner self in his work.  Over the years, he has been influenced by artists such as American abstract expressionist Barnette Newman. Newman’s paintings, he says, changed the way he looked at the world.  He asserts that “ceramics is the one language I know most about” and through development of its vocabulary, his work has evolved from utilitarian objects into more sculptural forms. Thomas is currently doing a PhD at Sunderland and looking into how ceramic artwork can alter perceptions of daily experience. His research now centres round how to extract experiential context from those forms.