I admire Charlotte Potter and the way she merges the ancient (cameo glass) with the vitally contemporary (Facebook). Is this an extension of studio glass, or does it fit within the Glass Secessionism aesthetic? Can artwork be both at the same time? Does it matter? Below, an excerpt from an essay about Charlotte Potter and her Facebook related work. I also post here two images of the work. Essay by Teresa Annas for the Virginian-Pilot. Link at end. Then it came to her in a burst: I am going to hand-engrave every single one of my Facebook friends as a cameo. To say it sounded easy. However, Potter had 864 friends on Facebook. She started before she took the Chrysler Museum glass studio job in June 2011 but, once here, got busy setting up the studio. In January, she dove back into the huge endeavor. Each cameo started from a chunk of black glass sliced into flat blanks. Hannah Kirkpatrick, a studio instructor, placed the blanks in kilns, sifted white powdered glass onto the surfaces and fired them at 1,465 degrees. Meanwhile, Potter Photoshopped each Facebook profile image and printed those images onto transparencies. Using the transparencies, Kirkpatrick created decals that let her create a rough approximation of a portrait on each blank. The pieces next went to Heather Hartle, a Williamsburg cameo specialist, who refined each engraving, enhancing details like hair and eyes. Multiply that process 864 times. At times a crew of helpers would gather in the studio like this sewing circle, Potter recalled fondly. We would sit upstairs and talk. It was very comforting. And these same people who were volunteering were friending me on Facebook, so they were getting folded into the piece. Earlier this year, a deadline hovered: The Oklahoma City Museum of Art wanted to include her in-progress piece in a show opening in June, Fusion: A New Century of Glass. In the spring she was on the phone with that shows curator, brainstorming a title. Its like Charlottes Web, Potter said. Oh, my God, thats it, the curator told her. The name suggested both the World Wide Web and her own network, and even alluded to a favorite childhood book. For the installation, Potter arranged the cameos against a wall. Each cameo was set like a pendant - with soldering taught to her by local stained-glass artist Kathy Little - and hung on the wall, with hooks made by Portsmouth glass artist Chad Clark. Her arrangement is based on a map of America. She placed each cameo on the location where she first met the person and connected them by delicate metal chains, all of which emanate from her own profile, now situated in Norfolk. For her Web, she created pods of friends she knew at school, or at a studio or through old boyfriends, connected by droopy chains that resemble spiders webs. Potter recalled seeing it set up in Oklahoma. It was overwhelming for about half a minute, she said, and she wept to see it. These are all the people who have shaped me as a human being and influenced me over the course of my life. And theyre all in one place at one time, staring at me. Full text here: hamptonroads/2012/12/artist-charlotte-potters-web-intrigue
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:46:48 +0000
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