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How
did you get started?
"It is all, my now daughter-in-law's fault! She persuaded me
to apply for a foundation course, which I did and got accepted.
I took on the course as a full time mature student during the day
and worked at night whilst completing. When the tutor goaded us
on to apply to UCAS I declined, as I still had a young family. But
I got railroaded again and said I would apply just to see what happened.
The next question was what did I want to apply for? The word glass
was out of my mouth before I even realised I had said it! One of
those situations where you look round and say to yourself 'Where
the hell did that come from?' I had interviews at three places and
was offered unconditional places at all of them but opted for North
East Wales Institute, Wrexham - only an hour and a half down the
M6. I studied full time for three years and came out with a 2/1
Honours degree, not bad for someone who was regarded as a lost cause
by the tutor at the start! So
I think you can safely say I got into glass by accident!"
Who
are your influences?
"I am not influenced by any one particular artist, there are
several I admire but do not aspire to emmulate them. I try not to
look at other glass artists too much, I prefer to get my inspiration
from myself, life and available materials. I am very much into recycling,
one man's rubbish is this woman's art! I can often be found head
down bum up rooting through skips! My work
normally begins with a couple of lines of poetry running around
my head, then I write a full poem, which gets translated into an
image containing
glass. Ok so I am crazy, you won't be the first to mention it. For
those that are interested in the conceptual side of my work you
will find that it is multi-layered and will be linked with things
such as colour healing, spitiuality, numerology, and ecological
issues."
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Dawn's
Ice Circle water feature is white to represents ice and reflects
all the colours of the rainbow in the right lighting. It is
a ring to represent the hole in the ozone layer, standing
in water because ice becomes water when it melts. As the hole
in the ozone layer is melting the polar ice caps, the sculpture
actually represents the last vestiges of ice on the planet,
which could become a reality for future generations, but the
rainbow shows there is always hope.
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What
about the biggest or most challenging piece you've done?
"The
largest pieces I have done were for the Royal Lancaster Infirmary
- two panels at 2 x 1.5 metres or thereabouts. They are situated
in the cancer scanning units, sited offset back to back, if seen
together they represent a double rainbow, non denominational and
I could find no negativity associated with this phenomena in any
religion. Stained glass supported in wood panels
covered by grey suede, printed with the open faced text of two separate
self written poems, the last four words of which are missing for
the patient to make up their own ending. Everyone passing though
these suites will have a different
outcome. The colouring of the stained glass is related to theories
of colour healing and colour therapy, very little red as this colour
raises the blood pressure. I did have a phone call from the hospital
about six months after installation to tell me that the need to
sedate patients before being passed through machines had dropped
dramatically.
"The
most
challenging, has been 'Ethereal', which is basically a large light
box, a 8ft x 4ft piece of sandblasted and engraved toughened glass,
bearing the words of yet another poem, four lines only. Very light
weight fabric suspended beneath the glass. Two housing units either
end containing UV lights, fans and wind chimes. No problems with
the lighting, as I have worked with UV before, nor the chimes, but
I had problems getting the fabric to billow the way I wanted it
to.
"
'Blooming' a 1.5 metre circle of stained glass took me a year to
complete from concept to design to finish. It's made up of 19 pieces
of glass and each piece went through the kiln nine times."
Do
you have any exhibitions planned or any work on show at the moment?
"I have three exhibitions at present, 5athegallery in St Helens,
where the fifth Beatle exhibition was held, Crook Hall in Durham,
and have two pieces on tour with Cohesion group, going to Ragley
Hall, Warwickshire, Upton House, Banbury and Shrugborough Milford
near Stafford."
Has
anything ever gone wrong?
"Where
would you like me to start?! There are always problems with glass,
things very often go wrong especially if they have been kiln fired,
you either work with the mishaps seeing them as happy accidents,
ignore them or start again after you have stood and screamed for
at least half an hour (an hour's better)! Getting vicious with something,
usually the garden, helps!"
What
are you up to at the moment?
"I teach stained and kiln formed glass at the Adult College
and am project managing the restoration and conservation of the
glass at the Winter Gardens on Morecambe Prom. I have to keep the
conservation officer happy, he wants to know what I intend putting
in there and the easiest way of showing him is to make one up! It
will also be displayed in the foyer. I believe that if you have
an unusual skill and you can help out in the community then you
should do just that."
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