Visiting Artist - University of Wisconsin River Falls

I arrived in River Falls on Monday the 7th. Just in time for dinner. I would be staying with Eoin Breadon and his family for the next week.  They had a very cozy spot for me - it was a warm reception for sure!

I spent several days at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls demonstrating and hanging out with the students. The vibe was great. This being my first visiting artist gig outside of Philadelphia, I admit I was a little nervous. I was the first visiting artist they had for quite some time, so the students were very excited. I presented a short version of my life history, in picture format (See Portfolio), before proceeding to the hot shop.

     The studio is equipped with a 600 pound Stadelman electric furnace, that pot is HUGE! A little hot to gather out of when it gets low, but that's the way it goes. The glory holes (2) get nice and hot, and the ventilation was great. The shop was very comfortable to work in.

The students' final assignments had been tailored to my visit – all were being required to create their own tools and/or blow molds to manipulate glass.

Knowing this sort of freed me up to play around a little with the objects after they came out of the mold. There were quite a few new discoveries made! I left the molds out in the shop as well, didn't really make any announcements about it, just anted to see what would happen. The first thing I did on the second day was check the recycle bucket. Low & behold, there was much evidence of the molds being used. I would later find that there was even more evidence in the annealer! The molds hung around long enough for everyone to have an opportunity to play with them and play with them they did! Very interesting to see what shapes inspire different folks, and what they do with them.

My birthday happened to fall in the middle of the visit. Three different classes sang Happy Birthday! Eoin and family took me to the nearby town of Hudson for dinner that night, and his wife, Carrie bake a killer vegan chocolate cake. It was a great way to welcome my personal New Year!

There is some video from the first day (once I figure out the editing program...) and loads of pics from the third day taken by SusannaWaits.