Fine Art Stained Glass
Mary M. & Mary H. each won a pair of tickets to the ACC show!!!
I used a very scientific method to determine the winner:
Piper must like the name Mary... Do I get a cookie now?
I hope to see you all at the show anyway 
American Craft Council Show
LOCATION
The St. Paul RiverCentre is at 175 West Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul. Find me in booth #100 this year!
PREVIEW PARTY
Thursday, April 19, 6-9 p.m. The evening will include cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, pre-show shopping, and live music. PLUS you’ll also receive complimentary show passes to return to the show to shop. Admission: $75. Proceeds benefit the American Craft Council. Click here to purchase your preview tickets.
Windswept Oak
SHOW HOURS
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. (Get into the show for $5 after 5 p.m.)
SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m.
One-day pass: $12. Three-day pass: $20. Just click here to purchase, print, and bring them right to the door. FREE for American Craft Council members & children 12 and under… or surprise, win a pair of tickets from me!
Now that the nuts & bolts info is out of the way, it’s time for the more fun stuff. Leave a comment below and tell me what your favorite part of the ACC show is (and if it is me, awe, that is soooo sweet!), whether you have ever been to the show or if this is your first time. I will pick a random (and I truly mean random in that I will have my dog pick the name out of a hat) winner to receive a pair of free tickets to the show.
This will be my 6th year at the ACC show, and it is one of my favorite shows: the quality of work is outstanding! Don’t let the name “Craft” fool you, there are fabulous artists from all across the country exhibiting and some of them have work in the Smithsonian.
Craft is a technical term referring the process by which an object is made, usually for a specific function. Traditional studio craftsmen work with wood, glass, clay, textiles, metal or a combination of both, so you won’t find any paintings, drawings, printmaking or photography at this show. Wikipedia defines craft as something in between art (which requires talent) and science (which requires knowledge). While craftwork can be utilitarian, it is also beautiful as well as useful, but quite often is displayed as fine art. I like to think that the fine craftsmen exhibiting are true artists creating beautiful artwork with talent and technical knowledge.
What do you think? Come to the show and decide for yourself!
This is the press release (hence the third person) written for the studio Art Crawl:
Josephine A. Geiger, who has won numerous media awards for the Saint Paul Art Crawl, has invited three other artists to “Crawl Off the Map” and into her Eastside studio this spring. In addition to her own art glass, there’s Beth Colaizy of Rustic Road Studio, a stoneware potter; Brenda Brousseau of Luna C. Bede, a beadwork & jewelry artist; and Tracie Thompson, a painter and mixed media artist whose animal portraits sell to national and international clients.
Rolling in the Deep, leaded glass window by Josephine Geiger, won a media award for the 2012 Spring Art Crawl.
Geiger was recently featured on TPT’s MN Original, and has become nationally known for her strikingly creative stained glass pieces. Trained in architecture, she finds the underlying structures of the landscape and translates those into leaded glass windows — pulling together a wide range of surprising colors and textures into an elegant, cohesive whole. She and Brenda Brousseau took two of the ten coveted Media Awards for this spring’s Art Crawl, and it’s easy to see why.
It’s Not Nice to Fool Your Motherboard, headdress by Brenda Brousseau, won a media award for the 2012 Spring Art Crawl.
Brousseau has won multiple grants and awards, and two of her intricate beadwork headdresses are currently being shown in an international bead exhibit. Beth Colaizy, a potter, will have her nature-inspired designs on hand, including not just stoneware but her unusual, stoneware-style blue and white porcelain pieces. Thompson will exhibit oil paintings and her increasingly popular series of three-dimensional art made of salvaged materials that she reconstructs, paints, and transforms into visual folktales.
Even with the vibrant arts communities in the Twin Cities, it is surprising to find such an established art studio tucked into an eastside Saint Paul neighborhood. Over the last few years, J.A. Geiger Studio has become a hot destination for the Art Crawl, where a few hundred people converge over the weekend to find some exceptional artwork. Geiger, however, is not content to rest on her laurels.
One of Thompson’s Ten-Minute Animals, pencils and watercolor on paper, about 7” square.
New for this spring’s Art Crawl is the Demonstration Tent. Brenda Brousseau will demonstrate some of the techniques she uses in her one-of-a-kind jewelry: peyote stitching, bead embroidery and crochet, and even how she incorporates motherboards and USB cords into her work. She will be working on a new head-dress for an upcoming exhibit “Women and Water” at the Phipps Center. Thompson, meanwhile, will be creating fun ten-minute animal portrait sketches. Bring her a photo and she’ll draw your dog, cat, horse, (gerbil, bird, lizard, or whatever you’ve got) for just $10 each. And even if you don’t have a pet, there are goldfish in the studio pond you can ‘borrow’.
Dates for the Saint Paul Art Crawl: Friday, April 27, 6 – 10 pm; Saturday, April 28, 12 – 8 pm; Sunday, April 29, 12 – 5 pm.
This photo was taken by the new owners. Love how the flowers compliment the colors in the window!
Northern Autumn is a sweet 17 1/2″ octagon window commissioned as a Christmas present. The actual landscape is loosely abstracted (see the inspiriation image used below) to create a rhythm similar to the inspiration rather than a direct translation of the image. The color palette is the rich, vibrant, saturated colors of autumn & the clear swirled glass gives the impression of wind blowing through the canopies.
I manipulated the original painting in Photo-shop to blur the lines and crop it to the octagon shape that was commissioned. ("Autumn - Orilla" was painted by Frank Carmichael in 1924. He was known for his work in conjunction with the Canadian Group of 7)
I love creating windows from paintings, photos, or even sketches on table napkins. Lately I have been inspired by a number of images from the Canadian Impressionist ‘Group of 7′ (these artists included Frank Carmichael, Lawren Harris, Tom Thomson among others) that were painting primarily during the early 1900′s. The rich saturated color palettes translate so well into glass, and many of the paintings are of the north woods – another one of my favorite subjects!
If you have a favorite painting or photo, why not send me an email with an image?
living room: photo courtesy of Brad Palecek
stair landing: photo courtesy of Brad Palecek
Just the other day, someone contacted me asking for more information on some windows in a house they were looking at buying. It turns out I had designed and installed 3 windows in the house a few years ago! While I am very sad that the original owners will no longer be able to enjoy the windows when the house is sold, I am sure the new owners will be very glad the windows are staying with the house.
The windows were based on the Arts & Crafts and Prairie style of art glass. The pattern is very loosely related to the tree of life concept, but it is not an exact replica of anything in particular. Personally, I love the warm color palette with the cream, amber and red.