Artist Development on the West coast

My instructor at Pilchuck Jennifer Bueno made this beautiful vessel w the help of her wonderful ta’s, David Rios and Zach Abella. I chose to learn from Jen as I really admire her practice, one that looks at environmental issues and how we live in a shared natural world. A highly skilled maker, she employs her beautiful talents to share a unique world view, it has been such an honour to have been taught glass blowing by her, I am so grateful. She has worked with many materials in her practice and specifically I wanted to experiment in the hot shop with glass and copper as so far I’ve only tried it out in the kiln. Jen and I both brought a bunch of copper and as a group we made a few big copper caged vessels, one even survived!! Jen’s Montessori themed class had us all learning and exploring together and we had so much fun playing and observing material entanglement.

Adjacent to our class, glass and copper’s potentially was explored by  MIT scientists that were part of our session- I so look forward to seeing what they cooked up!! It was also very cool to discover the beautiful work of ultra talented artist Romina Gonzales who was there w her partner Jason Robert Bauer  as the in house gaffers. It warmed my heart that they were able to be there w their child:) yes please! More of that art world! Romina and Jason gifted the session with a kick ass performance using copper to stretch glass a practice she has been exploring for some time now. So great!  Giving me Gutai and Lygia Clarke vibes, both conceptual practices I’ve long admired and have been very important to me.

‘Play is work’ was written on our whiteboard and we did plenty of it!! I love this vessel so much, when I look at it I hear Jens kind voice telling me to ‘fall to center’ when I’d get all panicky spinning molten glass on a hot metal pole and lose focus. She made this gorgeous piece while demonstrating how to do it so we could try it on our own. I got a chance to make a few, and they are very special to me, I hope they make it home in one piece! Learning new things, sharing ideas always makes me feel vulnerable but Jen created a warm inclusive environment and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I made many wonderful friends at Pilchuck, it is a magical place and I feel so lucky for the opportunity to experience it. I learned a ton about glass but the most important thing I learned about was community, as someone that spends a lot of time making alone it was pretty amazing to be a part of one. I couldn’t make this work alone and I’m so fortunate to have found the right mentor and place. Can’t make glass alone.

The artist gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chalmers Family Fund administered by the Ontario Arts Council .