LilianaBead: January 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Congratulations to Fountain Street Fine Art (FSFA) Gallery ... and me :)

Any time a new local gallery opens, the artists rush enthusiastically to support its founders and to showcase their work in a new venue when given the opportunity. And that's exactly what happened.

The Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery received its first visitors in December, 2010 and is now getting ready to open its first show Unscripted on January 27, 2011. Artists from all around this area and, possibly beyond, specializing in a variety of media and subjects, have been juried in by Katherine French, director of The Danforth Museum.

Grand Opening Bash- February 5^th, 5-8PM

at Fountain Street Studios Building in Framingham,MA on the 1st floor

I was among the artists to apply for the first FSFA show. I decided to submit a piece that's been in my mind for some time. My sculpture, Untitled , measuring about 24" long (see photo below), was juried in. This blog entry is about the creative/manufacturing process behind this piece

I've had a fascination with seeds and pods long enough to have created a few abstract collections in glass. I've long been attracted by the magic of pods and the engineering behind their most important functions of protecting, transporting and disseminating.

In the meantime, while dedicating more than ten years to glass and its artistic properties, I've considered beads to be like seeds. Beads are elements of a larger concept; their function is to propagate an impregnate the world with visions executed in glass. To me, glass is one of the most interesting, evolving and alive media in that it continuously interacts with its environment, light in particular. Glass renders itself to be imagined and transformed.

Before I take you through the manufacturing process, you may want to consider what some others have expressed before us.
Out of dozens of websites and resources, here are four:
1. http://theseedsite.co.uk/allpodsfam1.html
2. google search: seeds and pods
3. laura f. bennett / painter
4. art propelled

I made my sketches with pencil & paper and then made the beads. In between bead days, I went to a couple of fabric stores and decided to go with a felted material made of recycled plastic bottles from Sewfisticated. I decided on a solution for my form after spending a few hours at Blick - two cones of styrofoam linked together with wire and glue (weldbond-universal-adhesive). Got my sewing machine out - all ready to go.
Are you ready to see the photos?
Here they come whatever your answer is :)