Last weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting artist Hans Godo Fräbel, visiting and working in his studio, collaborating on a piece, and accepting the Hans Godo Fräbel Award along with Kimberly Fields, who won the Hans Godo Fräbel Novice Award.
The Hans Godo Fräbel Foundation hosts the annual Fräbel Awards. Artists from around the world submit entries to the competition; Fräbel, his top artist, and the president of the foundation jury the finalists; and the glass community votes on the winners.
Kimberly’s piece is “Roost”, a vignette of beautiful, little birds in an approximately 8 inch cube.
For our collaborative piece, we made a design incorporating aspects of each of our work. Mr. Fräbel has created a series of “Longfellows” – stick figure people in a wide range of postures. Kimberly makes beautiful little birds. We made a Longfellow with outstretched hands, offering a botanical garland of my vines and fruits, topped with Kimberly’s bird. The photos show the piece before sandblasting. The Longfellow will be frosty white afterwards, and the vines and fruits will have a matte surface like most of my work. And of course he will stand on a custom base. After making the piece, we all wanted it and figured the best way to settle the situation is to donate him to the Glass Art Society auction next year. We shall see if that’s the final decision.
Here is a short video of the award reception: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvhSJ81Wekw
Congratulations to Kimberly, and many thanks to Mr. Fräbel and the Fräbel Foundation!
