Northstar Glassworks has awarded glass grants to ten students of the John Burton Program.  Northstar makes borosilicate glass in various forms including rods, frits (small chips in varying sizes), and powders.  I use Northstar glass for most of my work. 

Paul Stankard is the founder of the John Burton Program, an online self-study educational program for flameworkers. 

I am fortunate to be a student in Paul Stankard’s seminar and one of the Northstar grant recipients.   Each grantee will receive $250 worth of Northstar glass.  I have ordered $250 worth of Blue Thunder rod.   Blue Thunder is a beautiful blue with streaks of brown.  

http://www.northstarglass.com/photos.asp?code=NS-122

My plan is to make a large Blue Thunder cyclone with fruits and leaves spinning out of it.  I’ll post photos as I progress. 

Thank you Northstar and Paul Stankard!!

For a daily dose of art, visit the Daily Art Muse at www.dailyartmuse.com in which Susan Lomuto offers a daily posting of artists in a full range of media and subject matter. 

Today’s post is about my art.  http://dailyartmuse.com/2010/02/24/kathleen-elliots-glass-botanicals/

Thank you, Susan!

Last night I attended the annual auction at Bay Area Glass Institute.  Lots of beautiful and provocative works of art were auctioned off to benefit the school.

Awards were given, and I am proud to say, I won a Jurors’ Choice Award for Cyclone Expecting.  The jurors (judges) chose the best piece in the auction, and three other Jurors’ Choice Awards.  The criteria for these awards were uniqueness and creativity within the world of glass as well as for the individual artist, technical mastery, and content beyond mere technical beauty or mastery.

The top prize, the Saxe Award went to Michael Janis for his piece Meridians. The two other Jurors’ Choice Awards went to Paul Cunningham for his Olive Flannela Vase and to Ethan Stern for Nana Span.  Also awarded was the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the auction attendees. Two artists tied for this award – Randy Strong for his Blue Orchid and Treg Silkwood and Candace Martin for Nautilus.  Congratulations to All!

I’m happy to announce that I have won the 2009 Hans Godo Fräbel Award! 

Hans Godo Fräbel is an artist of international acclaim, and is recognized as a founding father of modern torch work.  His art pieces can be found in public and private collections in over 80 countries worldwide. Some of the more illustrious collectors of Fräbel glass art are Queen Elizabeth II, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan, current and former heads of governments such as Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Anwar Sadat as well as museums in London, Paris, Tokyo, Dresden, Valencia, Corning, San Francisco, New York and Washington D. C.

Two of the most famous “trademarks” of the Fräbel name are the “Hammer and Nails” sculpture which is currently housed in Washington D. C.’s National Building Museum; and the playful, cavorting clowns which received worldwide recognition with the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Hans Godo Fräbel was the first glass artist honored with the title of Absolut Artist. Other famous artists that were chosen as Absolut Artist are Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.

Fräbel established the Fräbel Art Foundation, Inc., with the mission to educate the world on glass art by cooperating with museums around the world to organize exhibitions and showcasing glass art.  He also launched the internet site MyGlassArt.org, through which he offers the Hans Godo Fräbel Award competitions, the first independent awards for glass artists, where fellow glass artists vote who is the winner of this competition.

My piece Sun Pods is the 2009 winner.  In June I will travel to Atlanta for the award ceremony.  Graciously, as part of the award, Mr. Fräbel will welcome me into his studio to spend some time with him and his team of artists, talking about his art and techniques.  I greatly look forward to that!!

On Monday I learned of a course being offered by glass artist Paul Stankard and I immediately enrolled.   Mr. Stankard is one of my idols.  When I started working with glass, I discovered his work and have been in awe of it since.

Paul is recognized internationally as the most important and accomplished paperweight artist in the world.  His works are exquisite, intriguing, miniature botanical sculptures suspended within clear glass, and are characterized by delicious, intricate detail and a spiritual devotion to perfectly rendering the splendor of the natural world.  I could stare for hours at Paul’s works and still be touched by something new in them with every encounter.
 
The course Paul is offering will be through the John Burton Program, a new grassroots, educational, self-help organization established to celebrate excellence in flameworked glass.  The John Burton Program will offer independent studies through on-line courses, seminars and an internet library. 

Paul’s course will survey the contemporary glass art landscape, focusing on excellence and originality while over-viewing studio glass, and will offer a window into the challenges that a studio glass artist encounters.  Over 15 weeks, we will read and discuss Paul’s autobiography No Green Berries or Leaves – The Creative Journey of an Artist in Glass, as well as several other books on art, beauty and aesthetics, research and read about glass art, developing an artistic voice, and take field trips to look at glass art.  The course will be conducted by conference calls, internet forums, and writing assignments. 

The opportunity to study with Paul is a treasure!  Lucky me!!

www.PaulStankard.com
http://www.mwpubco.com/titles/paulstankard.htm
http://www.johnburtonprogram.com/