Statement from the Artist
Glass in the Heart of Texas
Nature can transcend our thoughts, desires and
curiosities and push creativity beyond limits if we will only be
still and listen. Some of my interest is to express the delightful
curiosity of nature, particularly the color and light quality. I also
delight in the many choices of media available to me and feel free to
express in a 2 or 3 dimensional manor. A friend of mine recently
coined a word for my work as Dremagine
or Imadream
as he
sees it as a collaboration of my imagination and dreams. It is
curious thought to me... as I soak in the details. As surely, it is
the essence
of my expression and the process of delightful
encounter that truly intrigues me. To live a life of creative
encounter so to speak.
I also want to thank the Museum for the invitation to exhibit in the wonderful museum space. It is always a pleasure to share my work and I do hope that it will inspire creativity and enjoyment for all who view it.
Painting Objective
The objective, essentially, is to create a heightened sense of
color interaction, to bring a freshness or clarity to the movement of
color. To explore that visual illusion of color and space that
reawakens our perceptions. One of the major abstract elements begins
with the interest in the fluidity and movement of nature and its
particular color and light quality. To create a lasting effect in
memory, to make an impression, Imprinting Nature
, so to speak.
The works become a kind of meditation on sensuality, sorrow, loss and self-discovery. The vehicle for exploration and expression can be found in paint or glass as well as other materials. I create works because I can, because I need to, for me. Just as I have always done as a young child growing up on the Bay in New York.
Glass Objective
The objectives, as stated on painting, are the same for Glass. Glass is that three-dimensional expression of my need for exploration to complete the cycle of creativity. Glass is a natural choice for it is extremely alive and fluid.
My deep connection to nature, our greatest teacher of life,
constantly surprises and inspires to push the limits of glass beyond
the realm of understanding. A meditative dance, it influencing me as
I influence it, until the collaboration is complete.
As Alfredo Barbini once said, You do not force glass, you follow glass
.
Jayne Duryea November 2013
About Jayne Duryea
Originally from New York, Jayne Duryea has been a resident of South Texas since 1981. Currently she is Professor of Art at Coastal Bend College in Beeville, Texas, and also Director of the Simon Michael Gallery.
Her expression is realized through sculptured hot glass and
painting, which are also courses and workshops she teaches throughout
the year. Jayne attributes a deeper enrichment of her work — both
painting and glass — to a six-month sabbatical in France, and an
opportunity to study glass-blowing at Murano glass factories in
Italy. Light and color, along with a return to nature, are the key
elements of my artwork
, stated the artist.
Jayne is a member of the Texas Fine Arts Association, Glass Art
Society, American Association of University Women, and the National
Museum of Women in the Arts, and has been nominated as Texas
Artist of the Year
two years in a row (2008-2009 and 2009-2010).
The inspiration for glass began in the 1960’s. When I was young, maybe 7 or 8 years old, I had the opportunity to see glass blowing as a young child. It was a dark sultry brick building with glowing sticks of light in a small glass factory in Riverhead, New York. It was magical! I have since returned to that location and found that it is now a residence home with some of the bricks and history incorporated into it's design.
Some many years later, in 1988, I was again introduced to glass during a
Texas Association Schools of Art Conference in Junction, Texas. Then, Bill
Bagley, an art professor from Texas Tech University, gave a glass blowing
demonstration for the group. Again, it was magical! I then spent a week with
Bill soaking up his knowledge of glass. My delight in glass was unbearable!
I continued with warm glass fusing and slumping as there were no facilities for
Hot Glass in South Texas. Bill Bagley, Texas Tech University in Lubbock and
Matthew Labarbera, Fire Island
in Austin, were all that existed. Robert
Willson was living in San Antonio and blowing glass in Murano, Italy at that
time which I knew nothing about.
Knowing this dilemma, I secured a small seed grant from a private foundation and began the process of establishing glass blowing facilities at Coastal Bend College. The private foundation offered us the opportunity to develop glass and has continued their support yearly.
Texas Tech University closed glass due to the death of Bill Bagley in 2000. However, it does continue today at the Junction site in the summer with Angie Health, one of Bills graduates and a CBC workshop participant.
Other schools, such as University of Texas at Arlington – Jim Bowman (Bill Bagley student) and West Texas State University – Darold Smith (Jayne Duryea student) and Mary Harden Baylor University – Hershal Seals (Jayne Duryea student) have set up glass since. There are now hundreds of private glass blowing facilities across the state. Many of whom were glass students from Coastal Bend College.
I have been teaching at Coastal Bend College since 1981 and in 1990 the first academic glass classes began. Coastal Bend College is the oldest academic glass blowing facility in the state. Glass was so new for South Texas that in 1989, the Art Museum of South Texas gave me a show in the down stairs entry way of my very first small glass works.
The techniques of glass blowing are many. The chemical make up of hot glass in
particular, COE, can be a problem as there are many types of glass which are not
always compatible. We use recycled glass from the community with a batch of a
few particular chemicals to make it more pliable, clear and hold heat longer.
The glass studio is state of the art with two 250 pound day tanks, 3 top loading
and one front loading Lehr annealing ovens, two Glorie holes, and all the other
necessary equipment for a Hot Shop. Students learn the traditional offhand
techniques of glass blowing as well as technical and maintenance of the studio.
They come away with quite an experience in sculpture, physics and beautiful
contemporary hot glass objects. As Director of the Simon Micheal Gallery at
CBC, we have had many contemporary studio glass exhibitions over the years.
Contemporary Texas Glass
and Classy Glassy Women
, to name a few.
Our annual glass workshop is held every spring where guest artist are invited to
participate. Marvin Lipofsky has given quite a few workshops and Ed Schmid,
author and artist, has as well. One can view the workshop events at
youtube.com/JayneDuryea
and JayneDuryea.com.
I teach traditional offhand Italian glass techniques of blown and solid work. These techniques are the new contemporary studio glass. There is nothing new under the sun, only new experiences and new expressions through new creative people. Unlike Italy in the past, America offers the opportunity to be free, a new liberation, a hunger for technical knowledge, an artistic expression in glass as opposed to the constraints of tradition of the glass factories in Murano.
The most esteemed teacher today is Lino Tagliapietra. He has brought the traditional Venetian techniques, as a Maestro, to us and become an artist in his own right from his American experiences. Before he came to the states in 1979, he was a factory production worker on the island of Murano, Italy. Glass in Italy is now changed forever as well.
I am a painter who now moves between many types of media for my expression.
The delightful curiosity of nature, particular the color and light quality are
my major concerns and can be seen in either two dimensional or three dimensional
forms. It is the essence
of my expression and the process of delightful
encounter that truly intrigues me. To live a creative encounter so to speak.
The life of Art or the art of Life… it is all the same to me.
In 1993, I spent 6 months in France to see if I could juggle the two mediums
of paint and glass. Some artist friends had said that I must concentrate on
only one
. So off I went and found that I can do both! I work in many media
and use what is of interest to me at that time. It is not the media but the
expression and the experience is what interests me. I spent time at ADAC the
only glass facility in Paris at the time, painted plein air, visiting museums,
cathedrals, and the life of a bohemian. Moving to a small village in the south
of France was a major turning point. Chateauneuf de Grasse offered me the
opportunity of far greater plein air work and glass at Biot, International
Gallerie Du Verres as well as working with glass blowers, Robert Perini and
spending time with Marinot the grand daughter of Maurice Marinot and Navaro.
Hot sculptured glass is beyond the two dimensional painting aspect of creativity to the three dimensional expression of my need to complete the cycle. Glass is the natural choice as it is extremely fluid and alive. It constantly surprises and inspires me to push the limits of glass beyond the realm of understanding. A meditative dance, it influences me as I influence it, until the collaboration is done.
My influences are many yet one in particular stands out, Robert Willson,
an amazing glass artist and dear friend who has since passed on. The
last few years of his life, He and his wife Margaret and I would go to
Murano, Italy together. Robert and I would take the vaporeto
daily from
Venice to Murano through the canals and out into the Mediterranean Sea to arrive
at the ARS Murano Glass Factory to work for the day. There is no match to
working with hot molten glass on the end of a blow pipe. The works produced
were magical then and the Italian influence was all that one could imagine. The
hot sculpted glass work in this exhibition titled, Le Fleur
is my only work
in my collection from that time period. I keep in touch with Murina at
the factory and will return some day.
Hot shops are many in Texas and across the United States. From the pulse of the
glass world, I suspect that contemporary glass will become the new Impressions
of our time originating in the United States. This is evident in that
contemporary glass enthusiast are feverishly collecting contemporary glass and
not the beautiful crystal of their grandparents as seen in the recent closing of
the Steuben crystal glass factory in New York.
Contemporary glass is a relatively new media for artistic expression in the United States, just 50 years old last year. The Studio Glass movement began in 1962 with a ceramic professor, Harvey Littleton and a chemist, Dominick Labino working outside the factory setting of industrial and utilitarian production. Contemporary glass in the United States has grown experientially and exploration is moving faster than believed possible. With the flooding of the market in the last 10 years of Chinese knock–offs of production craft and vessel forms being sold at a minimum, everyone can now enjoy hand blown production glass work. Due to this, contemporary glass in the United States has been hurled into the use of glass as a true sculptural media for expression and no longer the historical production craft that it has been in the past. The glass artist, Chihuly, has pushed glass over the top with the massive sculptural installations produced by his team in the past few years. One can see works beyond the scope of simple craft to full blown hot sculptured works never seen or imagined before. The expression is unlimited and daunting in its scope and as to the distance in expression, it is never ending. We have just begun to touch the surface of where contemporary glass will venture.
About the Art Museum
The Museum was founded in 1981 and was located in the historic 1864
Quartermaster Building at Fort Concho National Historic Landmark.
It opened in 1985 with exhibits from the National Portrait Gallery
and the Library of Congress.
The Museum has since held over 350 exhibits. Over 150 have featured
Texas artists, half of which have been women and 1/3 minority.
The overall
exhibit program encompasses all mediums, cultures and time periods. Ceramics
Monthly has cited the Museums' biannual National Ceramic Competition as
the premier clay show in America
.
The Museum's audience in West Texas covers 15 counties. The population is 194,000 (15% rural) with San Angelo as the major trade center. San Angelo's population is 89,000 while most of the smaller surrounding towns have populations of 1,000-3,000. The nearest major metropolitan area is San Antonio located 230 miles away. Education programs are done in close collaboration with the local and outlying school districts. Up to 50% of children in the school district come to the Museum annually.
San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
One Love Street
San Angelo, Texas 76903
325-653-3333 — www.samfa.org
THE FLOWER
"The Flower, a constant reminder of the cycle of life". Each painting is a memory of someone gone but not forgotten.
The hot sculpted glass work was created and produced in Beeville, Texas with
"Beevillian glass" or Murano, Italy. My interest is in the
solid sculpture form that lends itself to glass as a sculptural media
for expression. A material so alive and fluid that a meditative dance
occurs, it influencing me as I influence it until the collaboration
is complete. As Alfredo Barbini once said, You do not force glass,
but follow glass.
Duryea
THE BIRD
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Influenced by loss and inspired to begin again, "Portraits" of special people that I have known through out my life. These are but a few... do you see yourself in one?
Duryea -
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- "What Strange Birds Are We" series
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SCULPTURED GLASS
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Hot sculptured glass is the three dimensional expression of my need to complete the cycle of creativity. Glass is the natural choice as it is extremely fluid and alive. It constantly surprises and inspires me to push the limits of glass beyond the realm of understanding. A meditative dance, it influences me as I influence it, until the collaboration is complete.
As Alfredo Barbini once said:
Duryea
You do not force glass, you follow glass.
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LIST OF EXHIBITION WORK
Glass
Le Fleur
, Hot sculptured glass, 8"H x 15"DWhirling Flower
, Hot Sculptured Glass with color interior, 8"H x 15"DDancing in the Light
, Hot sculptured glass with dichroic color interior, 24"H x 7"DDelight the Mind
Hot Sculptured Glass with free form dancing hot bit cobalt, 17" H x 8"WL'Espirit de Naturel-Series –
Un Petit per du Moi
, Hot Blown Glass with free form hot bits, 24"HLa Forme Feminin en du Verre
, Slumped Glass, 32"H x 15"WWind Water with Formula
, Slumped Glass with crystal chards interior, 32"L x 15"W, Solid hot sculptured glass with interiors, 12"H x 15"WLotus Flowers and Leaves
, Hot sculptured cobalt glass, 4 Flowers 6"-10"D, 5 Leaves 5"LBlue Monoliths
, Hot Sculptured Glass with interior color, 7 works 6"-15" eachL'Esprit de Naturel-series:
C'est Moi
, Hot Blown Glass with danced hot bits. 22"H x 12"WLooking Towards the Sky
, Hot blown glass, 20"H x 12"DImagine Peace
, Hot sculpted glass, color, twisted air stems, One dozen. Hot sculptured hand on rock base, 6"W, Vessel 16"H with ChardsFlowers Reaching to the Sun
, Hot blown glass flowers, 7 Flowers 30"H 10 Leaves 5"LFour and twenty Blue Birds with Le Pomme
, Hot sculptured glass, 2" birds and 5"D PommeDisks of Delight
, Hot sculptured glass, 12 Disks 3"-8" and 20 - 1" Cobalt DisksFrench Connection
, Hand Blown Glass, Rondel 15"D and Vessel 6"H
Paintings
What Strange Birds Are We Series:
Self Portrait
, Watercolor on paper, 40W x 32HWhat Strange Birds Are We Series:
Me and My Friends I
, Watercolor on paper, 40W x 32HWhat Strange Birds Are We Series:
Me and My Friends II
, Watercolor on paper, 40W x 32HMadeline's Favorite
, Watercolor on paper, 40W x 53HNana's Poppy
, Watercolor on paper, 42H x 53W