Glass Community

Becker works with fused glass and found objects, creating intimate pieces that explore the connection between mind and body. Most recently she exhibited at the Moscow Artwalk with "Inside My Head", capturing the turmoil of living with a traumatic brain injury and using layers of glass, color and symbolic imagery expresses the abstract colliding with beauty. Becker developed an interest in fused glass when she enrolled in an art therapy program at Idaho Elks Rehabilitation Hospital after suffering a head injury with multiple sensory damage in 2007. Her intentions were to express her frustrations in giving up the person she used to be and finding a new path with my new brain functions. A red dot appears on her art pieces, which is a symbolic honoring of the brain injury that set her on the path of creating art from inside her heart and mind.

Becker's fused glass work is both dimensional and tactile. Some messages are subtle and some more direct. Her style has been compared to Frank Lloyd Wright's modernist lines of architecture and Joan Miro, a modernist abstract artist from Barcelona Spain. Miro studied and worked with Pablo Picasso in Paris in the 1920's. Becker too embraces her style of playful art and child-like impression.

Becker's work has evolved from the painful darkness of loss to the joy and whimsy of being alive despite the difficulties of sensory connections. She is currently creating a life rhythms series showing the common flow of individuals despite subtle or obvious differences. She has also expanded her work to include recycled glass. Because of coefficient differences in previously used glass, this form is often unpredictable and more difficult to produce an end art piece, but she is enjoying experimenting with crushing previously used glass, firing the broken pieces and reconstructing a new art form.

How did you get started with glass?

I got started quite by accident, literally . It was an accident, a slip on an ice covered cement walk that landed my on the back of my head. I suffered a subdural hematoma (basically a bleed on the surface of the brain )The severity of the impact caused my brain to bounce around in my skull which left me with cognitive impairments, multiple sensory damages and frontal lobe seizures.

As part of rehabilitation therapy, art is encouraged to help reconnect and develop new routes within the brain. I tried several areas of art creation suggested by the therapists and nothing seemed to click with me.

Then a fellow patient took me to a glass studio where she was doing glass fusion and it opened up a whole new way of expression. I was mesmerized. It was like I had a translator that took the thoughts I had, but could not find words for and gave them life. I could look at pieces of glass and imagine a whole new product coming out of the scraps. Here was a way I could talk using adjectives, and phrases that I once used as a feature writer.

I have the typical complications of memory loss, dizziness, difficulty in concentrating, but working with glass seems to give me temporary relief from these symptoms.

What was your first glass piece?

My first piece is my version of my brain. I detailed the blockages of the left and right brain not being able to freely communicate and the long routes and detours messages have to take. I will include a picture of this piece so you can see the detail I see from my minds eye inside my head. 

What area of glass art do you specialise in?

I specialize in kiln formed fused glass. I started with no knowledge or information on how to create using glass. I did not know any of the rules, so this gave me freedom to try most anything to see if it would work. I have educated my self by trial and error and web research when I get stuck. Reading is difficult for me now so I get snippets and parts of articles and plunge ahead. 

What have been your major accomplishments to date?

I think my greatest accomplishment is surviving my original brain injury and then finding an art form that gives me freedom and purpose. The obvious other accomplishments relate to having individual and group shows and having my art speak to others in my same situation, some less severe or more severe than myself. My art has opened opportunities to speak to individuals and groups about head injuries and the importance of art in healing and finding purpose.

What is your favourite glass working tool and why?

Favorite tool....hmmm....I suppose my creative mind is my favorite tool. Then my kiln. I love my kiln's ability to mold and move what I put into it. I am very fortunate to have a nice kiln of my own. I started with a small second hand kiln that had no controls or automatic systems. I had to set timers and reminders everywhere so I would remember to check and up the temperatures every so many minutes. I made lots of mistakes. This is where I learned hard lessons. I became a babysitter to the small shape of bricks and coils for five months and then bit the bullet and purchased my Skutt Clamshell with viewing window and hydraulic lifts on the lid. These lifts are particularly important since my hands now feel like I am doing everything with boxing gloves on my hands and drop a lot of what I handle. It does create lots of scrap glass and keeps me in an abstract mode. 

Whose work do you admire and why?

There are great masters, but my admiration goes to those talents of the humble unknowns, who give unselfishly of their gifts. They may never be "discovered" or become famous, but are already celebrated by those around them.

Where do you get your inspiration for pieces from?

Inspiration is all around me. I will look at an oil painting and wonder how I can create it in glass. A colorful piece of patterned fabric stirs a sense of how to blend tints and shapes. A cloud formation makes for exploration of expanding dimension and depth in a piece of glass. Because I have lost most of my depth perception with the brain injury and damage to my optic nerves, I create my depth by using touch to see dimension and shadows. My art is meant to be touched and stroked to get a full appreciation for the message in the piece.

The next pieces I am forming in my mind are related to my altered senses. I am thinking about how to show damaged vision, auditory distortions that create confusion, a sense of smell that no longer exists, food and drink that has only the phantom taste of burning rubber and the only pleasure of eating comes from texture and temperature. These are still in the planning stages and it will come to me all at once on how to do it...the challenge is to remember my inspiration.

What do you enjoy about glass working?

The unpredictability and fluidity as sheets and shards are turned to liquid and then back to seemingly rigid solid, forever changed to a new and interesting form and shape. I think this parallels my own personal life change.

What is your top tip for someone wanting to start doing what you do?

Don't start out the way I did. There are easier ways to get to art. I am so aware of the importance of art of all kinds in our environment and individual souls. I would say that it is important to explore many mediums and techniques. Don't force an avenue that is not to be your journey, but embrace what comes naturally and draws you in.

People can see my Art Glass at...

2Degrees Northwest, Moscow, ID 83843
Matter, 113 Fifth Ave SW, Olympia, WA 98501

Links

• View the Artist's Gallery on Glass Community
• Website: Red Dot Glass Art
• Becker J Gutsch Facebook Fan Page