letter from the GAs President new Membership ... - Glass Art Society

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G A S M e m b e r P r o f i l e
“Gift Bombs”
By Carol Milne
I admit it. I’m a radio junkie. But how many
war stories and bomb statistics can you listen to
before it starts to affect your work? Let’s just say
we’re fortunate I had glass available and not large
quantities of fertilizer. (Just kidding.)
Many people, of course, think the war in Iraq
has produced positive results: we got rid of a
dictator, brought freedom to the people, stopped
insurgents. But along with the good comes loads
of bad: tens of thousands of civilians dead, cities
demolished and homes destroyed, lives left in
tatters. This started me thinking about bombs
as gifts.
A gift has a giver and a receiver. It’s usually
given with good intentions, and received with joy.
But are good intentions enough? When it’s no
longer welcome, is it still a gift?
This series of work is titled “In the Name of
Love”. The gifts are hot cast grenades with bullet-
“In the Name of Love”
S t u d e n t P r o f i l e
Anthony Cioe – Virginia Commonwealth University
By Drew Smith
Throughout the Studio Glass Movement’s
existence we have seen various approaches to
creating work in glass from a variety of artists. Many
artists choose to incorporate surface treatments
or color patterns to act as the foundational basis
for their work and to help engage an idea or
concept. One particular student who has chosen
to focus on and to utilize the very natural qualities
of glass has begun to establish a new presence
within the art community. This particular artist
who establishes the idea of absence and presence
through transparency is a Virginia Commonwealth
University Graduate student named Anthony Cioe.
After graduating from the Rhode Island School of
Design in 2003, Anthony participated in numerous
exhibitions and residencies throughout the United
States. These include the recent MFA Biennial at the
Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington,
DE, a Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship, at
Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, NJ and
a Kohler Arts/Industry Residency, Sheboygan WI.
During this time, Anthony continued an exploration
to utilize the strengthening qualities of glass, which
serve to embody the remains of what once existed.
After working in a conservation lab and helping to
preserve objects in disrepair, Cioe began to form
“Bottle Repair”
“In the Name of Love”, detail
shaped interiors. Kiln cast bows adorn the grenades.
The bows are held in place with removable pins.
On the surface the grenades look like fancy gift
boxes, colorful, beautiful, a delight to hold. But a
closer look reveals the ominous undercurrents, the
danger within.
Each piece is named (however improbable
the name may sound) after an actual U.S military
operation in Iraq. For example, “Operation Glory
Light,” “Operation Spring Cleanup”, “Operation
Rapier Thrust.”
It’s heavy work (literally and figuratively) with
a bow on top for levity. Sometime it’s the thought
that counts.
Carol Milne is a full-time artist who works
primarily in glass. She builds the glass bombs at Pratt
Fine Arts Center and has been a teaching assistant at
Pilchuck Glass School in Washington and the Penland
School of Crafts in North Carolina. She lives in Seattle.
Visit www.carolmilne.com
“Increment-Decrement”
his own approach and style to this methodology.
This process has continued to fascinate Cioe and
push him to further the constraints of the medium,
which in turn has become the very substance for
his thesis.
Another specific aspect Cioe has chosen to
explore and develop is the quality of mirrored
glass, which he uses to, “create illusions and further
seduce viewers into contemplating the activity
at hand and create play between representation,
temporality and spark a fleeting moment.”
A further contributing quality of Cioe’s work is
his efforts to expose areas and spaces that are
not often observed or evident to the viewer.
This curiosity and attention to detail will continue
to propel his work forward within today’s
contemporary art world.
T e c h n i c a l A rt i c l e
Electricity by Eddie Bernard
Electrons are negatively charged, and they want to
go to where there are fewer electrons. Much in the same
way, hot and cold, up and down, high and low pressures
tend to balance out if not interfered with, as do negative
and positive charges of electricity. The difference
between a positive and negative charge is measured in
units called volts.
To control the flow of electrons, we use switches,
just like we use valves to control the flow of water and
gas. With this understanding, we can create control
systems, using automated switches to send power when
and where we want to send it.
Ever tried drinking a soda through a coffee
stirrer straw? The small diameter of the stirrer creates
resistance, making it harder to move the soda through
the straw as compared to a larger straw. This is a great
analogy for electrons moving through too small a wire.
To increase the volume of electrons moving through the
wire in a given period, which is measured in amperes,
one must either increase the pressure (voltage) or
decrease the resistance (larger diameter wire.)
Watts are the units in which we measure the
amount of power actually used to do work, like heat
your kiln to 1,550 degrees in 45 minutes and resistance
is measured in ohms. If your kiln requires 120 volts and
15 amps, multiply the volts by the amps to determine
the watts and you will get 1800 Watts. To cut your
amperage in half and use smaller wire, divide 1800 Watts
by 240 volts to see that you will now run on only 10 amps.
Draw for yourself a disc with a magnet on the edge
of it, and a magnet just outside of the disc. If you picture
the disc spinning, and imagine the magnets pushing
and pulling against each other, you will see that their
attraction alternates between push and pull endlessly.
This is how alternating current is produced.
For 240 volts single phase, draw a third magnet on
the opposite side of the disc, and a fourth one outside
of the disc directly across from the second magnet you
drew. Imagine this disc spinning now, with the two inner
magnets coming close to the outer magnets over and
over again. In reality, there is a turbine that turns at 60
revolutions per second in the U.S., and at 50 revolutions
per second in most other countries. Ever notice the
notation “60/50 Hz” on the label of electronic devices?
This refers to the frequency of the alternation current.
As the turbine turns, electrons are pulled to and fro, back
and forth inside the elements in your kiln. The elements
are designed with enough resistance that they heat up
as the electrons move back and forth.
I would like to invite any readers to submit an article
on any technical subject you wish, or even submit a list
of questions. The limit is 500 words, and images are also
accepted. Submissions can be sent to kate@glassart.org