FIRST PRIZE

RON COLEMAN

"Red Treasure"

SECOND PRIZE

DOUG RANDALL

"Mosaico vetro con butatto"

THIRD PRIZE

ELLEN ABBOTT & MARC LEVA

FIRST PRIZE

CATHARINE NEWELL

"Man Caught with a Fish"

SECOND PRIZE

TODD BILLMARK

"Neolithic Diptych"

THIRD PRIZE

LEE BRADY

"Pebble Dropped"

FIRST PRIZE

SANDRA LEONARD

"My Mann Fetish"

SECOND PRIZE

ANNETTE PASKIEWICZ

"Flower Power Bracelet"

THIRD PRIZE

GERI COMSTOCK

"Infinite Torque"

JOHN LITVINENKO

"Spy vs Spy"

CYNTHIA OLIVER

"Tangerine"

FUNCTIONAL

Ron Coleman
"Red Treasure"
2001
4" x 5" x 7"

A fused glass box made by assembling individually fused and formed panels in the kiln and surrounding the entire assembly with sand during a fuse firing. Brass inserts form the side panels and the removable lid is topped with an ebony handle.

FUNCTIONAL / 1st prize

Ron Coleman / Columbus, OH
"Red Treasure"

I currently do glass fusing as a hobby and have a little over two years experience. Almost all of my fusing education has come from the Warm Glass Board on the internet.

I have been employed by Battelle Memorial Institute for 30 years. Currently, I am a Senior Mechanical Designer and spend most of my time designing products for the medical industry. I currently have seven US patents. My most recent art education class was about 40 years ago.

Recently I had my first Gallery showing of glass work and it was very well received. It sure serves as a boost to know that my glass designs and ideas are headed in the right direction. Many of my current designs use black glass and incorporate either iridized coatings or mica powders.

This past summer I took my first glass fusing class and have been busy trying to incorporate all that I learned in my new work. I'm also starting to include other materials such as wood and metal to my designs, adding just a little more interest to the pieces.

return to top

Doug Randall
"Vetro Mosaico con Battuto"
2002
330 x 445 x 9mm

Kilnformed glass with inlay of fused "mosaic" work. Wheel-ground surface, edged, beveled, polished and sandblasted.

FUNCTIONAL / 2nd prize

Doug Randall / Portland, OR
"Vetro Mosaico con Battuto"

I am a glass craftsman, full-time, working with glass as my medium of choice since 1974. I'm mostly self-studied, as I have read almost every book available, taken many classes and studied with as many artists as possible to gain the highest level of knowledge that I can. In the 1980's, I apprenticed for several years with an accomplished glass artist in Northern California, operated a production stained glass shop and worked for a famous art glass manufacturing company. I've combined my passion for glass with my love of travel, and spent many journeys discovering the arts, architecture, history and peoples the world over. Currently, I am working in my studio, Small Planet Glass, where I turn whatever visions I have in mind into physical objects. I also welcome a few apprentices each year, hopefully passing on a bit of knowledge of my craft to the younger generation, creating a form of legacy, a spirit of passive learning in the ways of the ancient craftspeople.

Summer of 2002 brings an exciting new beginning to my exploration in glass. This new body of work I will call "Transformations," and while it is not a completely different direction of work, I have added new shapes, textures and designs as well as different color patterns to highlight my previous path of work. These additions allow me to better describe the thought process behind its creation.

As with my ongoing Prayer Wall series, I continue to use glass as a story or metaphor to speak about what I observe in the world around me. The overlaid colors and the carved textures are representative of how I perceive the current world's societies with the many interwoven layers of cultures, races and religions that have been formed and reformed throughout the centuries. For myself, it is like being on the inside, looking out, as an observer of life, in awe of what we have become as a civilization.

return to top

Ellen Abbott & Marc Leva
"Marriage Cups"
2002
4" x 3" x 4" and 5" x 3" x 4"

Pâte de verre cast glass, lost wax casting technique using waste molds and crushed glass.

FUNCTIONAL / 3rd prize

Ellen Abbott & Marc Leva / Houston, TX
"Marriage Cups"

Ellen Abbott and Marc Leva have been working in glass as a team since 1976 after a serendipitous afternoon propelled them into the burgeoning studio glass movement. Ellen's lifelong series of art classes was finally put to work designing carved and etched glass for architectural applications. They became interested in cast architectural glass in the early 1980's. A desire for another creative outlet, separate from their commission studio, led them to explore the pate de verre technique in the early 1990's. This team is self-taught in all the techniques they employ. Row, row, row your boat... life is but a dream.

These sculptures are offerings to the small beauties of nature. The flowers and insects that inhabit our section of the world provide our inspiration. Many of our pieces contain images that reflect the creative force that inhabits all things. The bowl form imbues the pieces with a sense of history, while the method itself reflects the antiquity of glass forming. The work is meant to speak of the relationship of humans to the earth.

return to top

Catharine Newell
"Man Caught with a Fish"
2002
24" x 19" x .75"

Fused glass with frit detail.

NON-FUNCTIONAL / 1st prize

Catharine Newell / Sammamish, WA
"Man Caught with a Fish"

Graduation from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Fine Art was followed by six years with TWA, various other career choices, marriage, parenthood and, eventually, a return to the art field in 1980 with my introduction to flat glasswork. Combining rendering and color work was greatly appealing, led to years of commissioned work and, eventually, to creating large three-dimensional flat glass portraiture. In 1998, after a trip to Italy, I began my Roma series: tri-paneled multi-dimensional screens composed of glass, wood and aluminum. Three weeks at Pilchuck's BE session in 2000 changed everything – I found warm glass technology to be completely irresistible! I am a full-time artist, producing figurative frit paintings.

Though diversity of thought and action is essential to our growth as human beings, entire segments of our population are quite often eliminated from the psyche to provide a false sense of security through insulation and isolation. Perspective is a highly customized view of the world and quite naturally determines individual reality. With this in mind, how can one possibly propose to describe someone else's identity, to define their life, in an accurate manner? Though my approach varies, my content remains the same: attitudes fragmented for inspection, proximity questioned, relationships examined, invisibility denied, differences respected.

return to top

Todd Billmark
"Neolithic Diptych"
2002
Pair, 28" x 2 1/2" x 5"

Fused, slumped, coldworked.

NON-FUNCTIONAL / 2nd prize

Todd Billmark / Portland, OR
"Neolithic Diptych"

While attending Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, I was exposed to the medium of glass. After receiving my BFA degree, I worked at a glassblowing studio and gallery for a year, then moved to Carbondale, Illinois, to attend graduate school. I recently graduated with an MFA degree in glass. My wife and I have just relocated to the Portland area and are in the process of establishing ourselves here.

I am a producer of cultural objects that reference a number of topics and themes: urban and natural landscapes, the eloquent object, and technical innovation among them. By creating defined areas within a piece that can be conceived as a "window" or "picture frame," I attempt to engage the viewer; I hope he or she will focus more intently on what is displayed. I fill these sections with abstracted patterns, thus leaving the viewer free to see what he or she chooses. While these geometric and repeating patterns are my visual interpretation of my surroundings, the designs are not intended to be literal representations of any specific object or event. I see patterns everywhere - both in built environments and in nature. I choose my forms based on my desire to create beautifully eloquent objects. I believe that beauty is a worthy goal for such creative endeavors.

return to top

Lee Brady
"Pebble Dropped"
2001
53 x 53 x 15cm

Fused, sand-carved, kilnformed glass, cast glass.

NON-FUNCTIONAL / 3rd prize

Lee Brady / Saskatoon, SK, Canada
"Pebble Dropped"

I achieved a BFA in Ceramics and Sculpture in the late 70's from the University of Saskatchewan. Venturing into glass soon after, I set up "Glass Eye Studio" in 1980. Since then, I have been working full-time in architectural stained glass and glass fusion, building my knowledge at glass workshops whenever possible. In 1989 I attended Pilchuck Glass School. I have shown my fused glass nationally and internationally, and I exhibit at several galleries in Canada. My work has also been featured in Stained Glass Quarterly, Glass Art Magazine and the Glass Gazette (Glass Art Association of Canada). I also teach glass fusion in a local community arts program.

For the past decade of glass fusion, my concentration on intricate surface treatments on large bowl forms has drawn me to appreciate the vessel as a timeless object of contemplation and ceremony. The vessels revel in the metamorphosis of ideas and materials into objects, which are gloriously more than the sum of their parts. This is as close as I can get to being an alchemist.

return to top

Sandra Leonard
"My Mann Fetish"

Dichroic mosaic on base glass, layered with clear, fused, cold worked and set in sterling silver and/or mixed metals.

JEWELRY / 1st prize

Sandra Leonard / Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
"My Mann Fetish"

In the process of reinventing and recycling myself, I have worked as a flight attendant and have owned my own women's apparel store. My current project is creating an art-filled B&B artists' retreat and workshop space in Puerto Vallarta, MX. I am self-taught with creative visions expressed in several mediums, including furniture design. I have participated in workshops at Pilchuck, The Studio and, most recently, with Kristina Logan in France.

I believe passionately that art can and should be usable as well as beautiful. I never tire of exploring new ideas and techniques of melding form and function. I enjoy being able to work in both two and three dimensions, turning ideas into something of substance and form. I primarily utilize glass, metal and canvas and, most recently, wood. They produce wonderful collaborations, but I am particularly struck by the potential of glass and it's dimension, clarity, color reflectivity and environmental presence. My works manifest themselves into functional forms of a whimsical nature that support and inspire each other to artistically enhance environments or as personal adornments.

return to top

Annette Paskiewicz
"Flower Power Bracelet"
2001
7 3/4" x 1 5/8"

Fused glass (Bullseye opaque & transparent 3mm sheet-dichroic coating by Sandberg), hand-cut and water-jet-cut glass elements, set in sterling silver.

JEWELRY / 2nd prize

Annette Paskiewicz / Redondo Beach, CA
"Flower Power Bracelet"

The training I received in art and theatre lighting at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, coupled with being influenced by my mother who was an art teacher, built an extraordinary foundation for creating my craft. After being "turned on" to glass (in more ways than one), I moved to California to begin a career as a glass & metal jewelry artist. When I'm not running around doing art fairs, I'm home in Redondo Beach, doing yoga, patio gardening, and dreaming of opening my studio and gallery space one day.

I create fused glass jewelry to reflect my love and passion for color. By creating a foundation of colors and shapes, I am able to communicate my fascination with these elements. The emotional connection of color to our psyches completes our connections to the earth and to others. People respond to the depths and intensities of my color palette. It's a badge of the secure soul... a sign we are together.

return to top

Geri Comstock
"Infinite Torque"
2001 - 2002
about 6"

Fused dichroic glass cabochons with gold inclusions. Silver work: Fabricated sterling silver, sheet, wire and tubing.

JEWELRY / 3rd prize

Geri Comstock / San Jose, CA
"Infinite Torque"

Born in 1955 in Gibson City, Illinois, I spent the first 23 years of my life as a resident of the State of Illinois. In 1981, I moved to California to pursue a career in high technology. In 1989, I began attending classes covering both two-dimensional and three-dimensional stained glass work. In 1992, while still employed in the computer industry, I embarked on a life-long dream of pursuing a career in the arts by exhibiting and selling my work at art shows in California. In 1993, I began studying sculpture and jewelry-making at a local college, completing 12 art courses, 3 glass fusing classes, and a certificate program in jewelry. My love of three-dimensional stained glass sculpture moved me into the area of warm glass work which includes functional, sculptural, and jewelry designs. In 1994, I embarked on my glass work full-time.

I continue to sell my work through art shows and many galleries and shops. As time permits, I teach fusing classes. In addition, I appeared in two TV commercials this year.

I adore jewelry – buying it, owning it, wearing it. But most pieces of jewelry can only be worn one way. My desire for a piece of jewelry that can be worn in many ways inspired "Infinite Torque". I made it for the creative woman who likes to "play" with her jewelry - dress it up, dress it down, move things around, add parts, remove parts.

"Infinite Torque" allows the owner to reconfigure a single piece of jewelry in dozens of ways. She can wear the large cabochon alone as a pin. She can wear the earrings with either small or large dangles. She can wear only the metal torque or wear it with various combinations of the other metal pieces and cabochons.

return to top

John Litvinenko
"Spy vs Spy"
16" x 14" x 3"

Fused, carved and slumped.

John Litvinenko / Carbondale, IL
"Spy vs Spy"

My first introduction to real art was in high school, where I took every art class in the curriculum; however I was especially fond of sculpture, in particular stone carving. After graduation I went on to Harper College where I learned to carve stone from Mike Brown. Mike recommended that I attend marble/MARBLE symposium in Marble, Colorado, which I did. It was an inspiring experience where I had a chance to learn and interact with thirty artists from all walks of life.

I have been interested in glass as a medium for quite some time. In the summer of 2000, I attended a workshop at Talisman Glass in Chicago where I got hooked on glass. The following school year I enrolled in the glass program in Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Although glassblowing is emphasized more than kilnformed glass, through the help of Todd Billmark, I learned how to fuse glass. Currently, warm glass with all its challenges and possibilities of control is what interests me the most.

In my work, I depict various relationships in nature. These relationships are sometimes mathematical in origin and other times are relatively basic philosophical concepts such as good versus evil, or the nature of humanity. My goal is to combine the depictions of these concepts with an esthetically pleasing formal design, thereby achieving a balance between form and concept.

return to top

Cynthia Oliver
"Tangerine"
2001
18" x 15" x 3"

"Tangerine" contains fused opal and transparent sheet glass, glass rods and inclusions of layered "Mardi Gras" glass kiln blobs (not the technical term), then it was slumped into a hand-thrown clay mold.

Cynthia Oliver / Salt Lake City, UT
"Tangerine"

I received my B.F.A. from the University of Utah. A few years after I had graduated, I stumbled into a fused dichroic glass jewelry class. I didn't even know what fused glass was, I just knew I loved glass. I promptly put my easel in storage and have since worked exclusively with glass. I have taken classes, as I could, from other local glass artists as well as Roger Thomas, Avery Anderson and Brock Craig.

In addition to being a middle-aged artist, I am the mom of a nearly adult son, wife to a middle-aged man, caretaker of two rather chubby cats (not my fault, they know how to open the fridge). I am a former gallery owner, acting Vice President of the Utah Designer Craft Alliance (What was I thinking?) as well as having various and sundry other responsibilities, connections and associations.

I came to glass from painting, and tend to work with glass as I would work up a painting by layering color and design elements one over another. I compose as I work, adding more details and layers until I am satisfied that every aspect of the piece is attended to. Most work requires multiple firings to build up the imagery before I feel they are finished.

Glass is such a versatile medium and I have always been intrigued with it. It keeps me excited, interested and in touch with seeing, feeling and creating. The process of working with glass gives me pleasure; it is challenging, exciting and a bit dangerous. I care about craftsmanship, composition, balance and beauty. I am interested in form as well as function, and craft as art.

return to top

All materials © 2008 Bullseye Glass Co.