Flowers, various shapes and sizes, glass pieces by Sara Gray and art quilts by Pam Geisel
Fiber artist Pam Geisel and glass
artist Sara Gray have collaborated to present a two-person exhibition titled
“Fused: Fiber and Glass” which will be in the Village Artisan’s Lobby Gallery
from September 13 through November 5, with an artist reception on Friday,
September 13 from 6–8 pm.
As artistic mediums go, fiber and
glass are quite different from each other. Fabric is usually considered soft,
flexible, and impervious to breaking while glass is often perceived as firm,
rigid, and fragile. One way in which these two mediums are similar is that they
can both be fused. Glass fusing is the process of joining compatible sheet
glasses together in a kiln until the glass becomes one. Fusing of fabric
requires ironing an adhesive to the back of one fabric then fusing it on to
another piece of fabric.
Flowers, (left) glass plate by Sara Gray, 7" x 7" and (right) art quilt by Pam Geisel, 6" x 6"
“Being able to fuse fabric was a
game changer for me,” says Geisel. “Now I’m not limited to squares, triangles,
and rectangles found in traditional quilt blocks. The fabric doesn’t have to be
pieced with seams; it can be placed randomly.” Gray added, “Fused glass has changed my love
for working with glass. Being a stained-glass artist over 20 years and now making
fused glass for over 10 years has allowed me to create functional glass art.”
"Chasing Geese," (left) glass by Sara Gray, 12" x 12" and (right) art quilt by Pam Geisel, 20" x 20"
To make the exhibit a true
collaboration, they each made pieces based on the other’s art. Gray made a
fused art glass piece based on Geisel’s “Chasing Geese” art quilt. When Gray
shared photos of pieces she made for the exhibit, Geisel was immediately drawn
to Gray’s piano keyboards with rainbow colors. Geisel states “I knew
immediately that I also wanted to make a keyboard using hand-dyed fabric in the
colors of the rainbow.” Geisel was also inspired by Gray’s square and
rectangular plates that had different colored flowers that each had six green
leaves. “Pam used yarn for her stems, and I used glass stringers for mine.”
"Rainbow Keyboards," (top) quilted table runner by Pam Geisel, 10" x 34" and (bottom left) glass with 11 keys and (bottom right) glass with 17 keys both by Sara Gray
“When we first started working on
making pieces for this exhibit, we realized that we’d already been
collaborating for many years,” Gray said. Not only have they made custom
artwork for each other, they both have been members of Village Artisans for
over a decade, with Geisel joining in June of 2012 and Gray shortly after in December
of 2012. For several years both women have coordinated the co-op’s annual art
festival, Art on the Lawn, although it goes back further than that, when they
both coordinated the Glen Helen Nature Arts and Crafts Show from 2006–2011.
Previously Geisel coordinated the show with Gray’s mother, Susan Miller. Both Geisel
and Gray started selling their art at the 2006 Nature Arts & Crafts Show,
with adjacent booth space. “Susan was one of the first people who bought
something from me,” said Geisel.”
For “Fused,” the artists focused
on using rainbow colors along with the color black. “With both glass and
fabric, you have really vibrant colors, but you can’t really mix colors like
you can with paint. Instead, it depends on what colors are next to each other
and layering colors on top of each other,” said Gray. “And adding black really makes colors pop,”
explains Geisel “which is why we wanted to put our focus on that.”
