Sonja BlomdahlJudith LaScolaDebora MooreJenny Polhman and Sabrina KnowlesGinny RuffnerLisabeth SterlingCappy ThompsonMary Van Cline

Seattle Reigns

© 2011 Ken Saunders Gallery Printed and bound in the United States of America, all rights reserved.Book Design by Jo-Nell SierenFirst Edition: February 2011

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Published on the occasion of the exhibitionSeattle Reigns

March 3 - April 30, 2011

Seattle Reigns

INTRODUCTION

This exhibition presents nine artists who hail from Se-attle, a city that has 155 days of rain and easily twice as many artists working in glass. These nine, all women, all mid-career, are among the more established and better recognized of Seattle artists, women or men.

It has not always been so. In their early careers, in the l970s and 80s, several of these artists ventured into an area of art that was very much male dominated. Sonja Blomdahl speaks of being the lone woman in a glass hot shop and learning the physically demanding skills of blowing glass. She, along with the others in this ex-hibition who use blown glass (Debora Moore, Sabrina Knowles, and Jenny Pohlman), have developed their physical strength and athleticism, having to learn differ-ent ways of working with hot glass from those used by men. Even more than bodily strength, they have had to call on their emotional strength to pursue their artistic goals.

Not only have they forged ahead into activities once thought physically impossible for a woman, several of these artists have pioneered techniques and invented processes using glass, going where no one has gone be-fore. Mary Van Cline, working with Kodak, invented a custom emulsion to enable her to combine photographs with glass. Ginny Ruffner overcame prejudice to bring flamework into the arena of fine art. Cappy Thompson pioneered narrative painting on float glass on a monu-mental scale. None had the comfort of a tradition to fol-low in achieving the results they desired.

Now in mid-career, these nine artists have been selected to show together in the exhibition, “Seattle Reigns.” Is it possible, or merely unwise, to attempt to make gener-alizations about these women, each of whom pursues a singularly individualistic style and purpose? But, indeed, there are some commonalities this grouping brings to the fore….

The vessel is the primary vehicle of expression for several of these artists: for others it is part of an extended rep-ertoire. Blomdahl uses the blown vessel as a vehicle for pure, luscious color, usually in multi-layered color combi-nations. For Thompson the vessel becomes a device for presenting narratives in the round. Her reverse-painted drawings cast herself as a main protagonist meeting vari-ous mythological beings, gods and goddesses. The trans-parency of the glass vessel enables us to view different elements of the story simultaneously.

Lisabeth Sterling has recently moved away from her longtime use of vessels that convey scenes with a melee of faces and figures crowding in on each other in chang-ing relationships. In this exhibition she shows a group of etched-copper and engraved-glass panels, the Commu-nity Series, focusing on faces, the human form, and her characters’ emotions.

Judith LaScola and Ruffner also refer to the vessel, yet with different intentions. LaScola creates lidded, thick-walled vessels deeply sand-carved to reveal interior color and decorated with rich surface detail. These are arranged as still lives, often against a background screen, similarly decorated. Ruffner chooses a classic vase shape to contain the flameworked and handpainted elements that spill out of it. She also presents a basket of flowers from her Aesthetic Engineering series, where the blooms are a “hybridization of Abstract Expression and Dutch flower painting.”

Love of nature is another theme that unites these artists. Ruffner sees nature, especially the plant world, as a vital underpinning to her artistic practice. Moore’s inspiration comes from her love of old growth trees and rain forests whose fecundity breeds in her imagination fantastical or-chid trees with exotic, exquisite blooms. Van Cline places her pâte de verre figures, like her photographed figures, in nature. In her Inochi Series she arranges leaves and tree bark to create a more formalized Japanese aesthetic. Knowles and Pohlman, working as partners, fabricate el-ements of nature (gourds, birds, seed pods—all in glass) and combine them with ready-made and found objects, such as beads. Many of these items have a deeply sym-bolic quality or refer to the traditions of distant cultures, of Cambodia, West Africa, and other countries where the two artists have traveled.

Knowles and Pohlman have long been interested in the symbolism of the female form and intend their art to reflect “the empowerment of the feminine principle--the concept of giving and appreciation, as opposed to taking.” Their work is about providing healing in today’s fragmented world. While by no means peculiar to wom-en alone, this compassion for humanity can be seen as a female perspective. Interestingly, in interviews, most of these nine artists expressed the belief that being fe-male influences their art. Many defined themselves as women, and as artists, by their connections to others--as mothers, daughters, grandmothers, sisters, wives and caregivers. Sterling’s narratives are often about her own

family. Thompson takes the female role in her work which often centers on relationships. Van Cline uses the female body, actually a cast of her sister-in-law’s own body. LaS-cola concedes that the highly decorated surfaces of her work, as well as its intimacy, could well be seen as char-acteristic of women’s handiwork.

In addition to all being women, the more than obvious connection between these nine is their use of glass. They recognize that the world of glass has brought them together as colleagues and friends and has given them opportunities never imagined in their early years. While each has come to the medium of glass by a different route, there is a shared passion and reverence for the material. Blomdahl has never lost her love for the dance of working with hot glass: the immediacy of creation, the heat, fire, noise and camaraderie of the hot shop floor. Moore eulogizes the properties of glass, how she can freeze the molten material to work in an organic way. Others extol the qualities of the material in its solid state. They describe its transparency, translucency, brilliance, changeability, fragility and strength. Embodying light it-self, glass uplifts them both physiologically and psycho-logically. They join with Jenny Pohlman in seeing “glass as a metaphor for the human experience itself.”

Patricia Grieve WatkinsonSeattle, January 2011former Executive Director, Pilchuck Glass School

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Sonja Blomdahl

Mandarine/ Amethyst 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches

blown glass

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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Celedon/ Teal9 x 9 1/2 inches

blown glass

Mandarine/ Amethyst 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches

blown glass

Buff/ Ruby10 x 10 1/2 inches

blown glass

Photography by Russell Johnson

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EDUCATION

1976 MA, Orrefors Glass School, Orrefors, Sweden 1974 BFA, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, ALClinton Presidential Library and Museum, Little Rock, ARCorning Museum of Glass, Corning, NYFine Arts Museum of the South at Mobile, Mobile, ALHuntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, ALMatthew’s Collection, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZMontgomery Museum of Fine ArtMuseum of Contemporary Art & Design, New York, NYMuseum of Decorative Art, Prague, CzechoslovakiaMuseum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MAMuskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MINiijima Glass Art Museum, JapanRacine Art Museum, Racine, WIRenwick Gallery, National Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KSUniversity Museum, Iowa State University, Ames, IAWhite House Collection of American Craft, Washington, D.C.

Judith LaScola

Brown Dot Fancarved, blown and etched glass

Photography by Robert Vinnedge

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Blue Sapphirecarved, blown and etched glass

Photography by Robert Vinnedge

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Rust Egg Bowlcarved, blown and etched glass

Photography by Robert Vinnedge

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SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

University of Michigan, Alfred Berkowitz MuseumSpringfield Musum of Art, Springfield, OhioRahr West Museum, Manitowic, WisconsinCharles Wustum Museum, Racine, WisconsinScottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, ArizonaAichi Prefectural Museum, Seto, JapanHuntsville Museum, Huntsville, Alabama Museum of Northwest Art, La Connor, WashingtonJewish Museum, San Francisco, California

SELECTED MUSEUM AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Swedish Cancer Institute Collection, Seattle, WashingtonMontreal Museum of Fine Art, MontrealMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaCharles A Wustum Museum of Fine Art, Racine, WisconsinHunter Museum of Fine Art, Chattanooga, TennesseeHuntsville Museum, Huntsville, AlabamaThe Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California

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Debora Moore

Blue Epiphyte, 201020 x 17 x 11 inchesblown & sculpted glass

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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Paphiopedilum Epiphyte, 201035 x 9 x 9 inches

blown & sculpted glass

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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Pink Lady Slipper, 201058 x 40 x 8 inches

blown & sculpted glass

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark9th Northwest Biennial Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WASuffolk Center, Suffolk, VACleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland, OHThe Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FLMuseum of Glass, Tacoma, WAMuskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PAButler Institute of American Art, Winter Orchidarium, Youngstown, OHMuseum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WAVancouver International Art Exhibition, Vancouver, B.C.

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

The Corning Museum of Glass, Permanent Collection, NY35th International Glass Invitational, Royal Oak, MIMuseum of Glass, Tacoma WANeues GlasAbate Zanetti, Murano Venezia ItalyMuskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MIHarbourfront Centre, Toronto Philander Smith College, Donald W. Reynolds Library & Technology Center, Little Rock ARJon and Mary Shirley Collection, Seattle, WA

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Debora Moore’s work is comprised entirely of blown and sculpted glass, drawing inspiration from botanical studies.

She has studied at both the Pratt Fine Arts Center and the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state. She has been an instructor at Pilchuck, Pratt, and the Hilltop Artist-in-Residence Program in Tacoma, WA. In 1998, she was accepted as a member in the African American Design Archive at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Her work was included in the Artistry of Orchids exhibition at the Smithsonian Institu-tion in Washington, DC in 2000. Her solo exhibition, Natural Reflections, opened in 2005 at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, fol-lowed by a residency at the Museum. In 2005, Debora was also awarded artist-in-residencea the Abate Zanetti School in Murano, Italy.

Debora was awarded the Rakow Commission in 2007, with inclusion in the permanent collection at the Corning Museum of Glass, and par-ticipated in Corning’s Meet the Artist podcast series. In 2009 she was selected to exhibit at the 9th Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Mu-seum. She participated in a group show, Flora, at Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark, in 2010.

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Jenny Polhman Sabrina Knowles

Untitled, 2011 (Tapestry series)82 x 59 x 13 inchesoff-hand blown and sculpted glass, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, found objects, natural materials, beads and antique African beads and findings.

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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Black Bird with Medicine, 2011(Totem series)49 1/2 x 18 x 13 inchessculpted glass, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, beads and antique African findings.

Photography by Lynn Thompson

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EDUCATION

KNOWLES 1986-88 SCCC, Seattle, Liberal Arts 1988-89 Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle 1993-96 Pilchuck Glass School

POHLMAN 1982 BSJ, Ohio University, Athens, OH 1992-99 Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle 1993-96 Pilchuck Glass School

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Muskegon Museum of Art, “Primal Inspirations,” Muskegon, MI Bellevue Arts Museum, “Convergent Zone,” Bellevue, WA Tacoma Art Museum, Neddy Artist Fellowship exhibition Tacoma Art Museum, Neddy Artist Fellowship exhibition Racine Art Museum, New, Novel, and Never Shown Before 2008, Racine, WI Larson Museum, solo exhibition, Yakima, WA 2004 Museum of Northwest Art, solo exhibition, LaConnor, WA Creative Glass Center of America, 20/20 Vision, Millville, NJ

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Cancer Care Alliance Center, SeattleAnne Gould Hauberg Collection, Seattle Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI Jon & Mary Shirley Collection, Seattle Allen & Kathleen Shoup Collection, Seattle

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Sabrina Knowles and Jenny Pohlman are in their 18th year of collabora-tion, incorporating blown and sculpted glass, metals, beads and natural materials to weave narrative sculptures inspired by the spiritual beliefs and rituals of traditional cultures and the role of women in cultural evolution.

Since 1997 they have journeyed extensively through Africa and South-east Asia to meet people and learn about their histories, current politi-cal and socio-economic environments and spiritual beliefs. Through their travels they seek our common humanity as they examine and shape their own life’s philosophy, which ultimately emerges in sculptural form.

As they evolve their blown and sculpted glass forms they minimize line creating a stylized vocabulary of symbols that, to the artists, read equally engaging in silhouette and three dimension. The artists focus on balance and rhythm as they construct their work much the way a musi-cian arranges chords.

Knowles and Pohlman have been affiliated with Pilchuck Glass School and Pratt Fine Arts Center (where they sponsor a high school scholarship in their name) throughout their careers and have received scholarships, awards and grants for their artistic and teaching efforts. They joined the board of trustees of the Bellevue Arts Museum in 2009.

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Ginny Ruffner

Aesthetic Engineering Series (AES): Basket, 200812 x 16 x 14 inches

lampworked glass and dripped mixed media

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The Flow, 200014 x 28 x 14 inches

lampworked glass and mixed media

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EDUCATION

1975 MFA University of Georgia1974 BFA University of Georgia

SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS

Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WICarnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PACincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OHCooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, NYCorning Museum of Glass, Corning, NYDetroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MIFort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, INHigh Art Museum, Atlanta, GAHokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, JapanHsinchu Cultural Center, Hsinchu, TaiwanHunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TNHuntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WVKrannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, ILIndianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, INKoganezaki Glass Museum, KAMAKURA, JapanKunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, GermanyLos Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CAMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NYMilwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WIMint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NCMontgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, ALMontreal Museum of Fine Art, Montreal, CanadaMusée of Design and Applied Arts, Lausanne, SwitzerlandMuseum of Art and Design, NY, NYNorton Museum of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FLPalm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CAPolk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FLQueensland Art Gallery, Queensland, AustraliaRacine Art Museum, Racine, WIRenwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WASpeed Art Museum, Louisville, KYTacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WAToledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OHMH de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA

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GINNY RUFFNER: A NOT SO STILL LIFE

Seattle artist, Ginny Ruffner, can’t be summed up in one word, but the most commonly used term is “inspiring”. In keeping with Ruffner’s own rejection of irony, pretension, and the high and lowbrow dichotomy, her use of lampworked glass for her unique and globally acclaimed art form revolutionized popular and critical opinions about this formally “kitsch”. Adding to Ruffner’s extraordinary story is her astounding recovery from a near-fatal car accident in 1991 which left her in a coma for five weeks and confined to a hospital for five months. Doctors were convinced that she would never walk or talk again, but true to her indomitable spirit, Ginny Ruffner transformed a potentially tragic accident into a career of even more imaginative creations. From pop-up books, to room-sized installation pieces, to public works, Ruffner’s art has blossomed and continues to expand. Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life marks Shadow-Catcher Entertainment’s first feature-length documentary, and one sure to challenge you to see the world from a new and unexpected perspec-tive.

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Lisabeth Sterling

Watching Comets, 2010 Community Series (Detail)

12 x 9 inches

Photography by Robin Brewer

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Community Series (Detail)38 x 49 inches inches

Photography by Robin Brewer

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SELECTED MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS

Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WI Galerie Mark Peet Visser, Heusden, The Netherlands New British Museum of Art New Britain, CTNostetangen Museum, Hokksund, NorwayMuseum of Arts and Design,New York, NY The Newark Museum, Newark , NJThe Glassmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, DenmarkSpringfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OHEverhart Museum, Scranton, PA The Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL Kentucky Museum of Arts and Design, Louisville, KY The Berkshire Museum, Pittsville, MA The Museum of American Glass, Wheaton Village, Millville, NJ The Glassmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, DenmarkThe Guild of Glass Engravers, London, EnglandArnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY Corning Museum of GlassContemporary Crafts Museum, Portland, OR

AWARDS

Guild of Glass Engravers, London, EnglandFlorida Glass Art Alliance, Miami, FlCreative Glass Center of America, Wheaton Village, NJBC Glass Art Association, Vancouver, BC, Canada The Kristallnacht Project, Philadelphia, PA

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Cappy Thompson

Through my Animal Nature I am Transformed, in the Altar of my

Heart, Assisted by Angels Bearing Gifts from the Sun and the Moon,

199517 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches

vitreous enamel reverse painted on blown

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Through my Animal Nature I am Transformed, in the Altar of my Heart, Assisted by Angels Bearing Gifts from the Sun and the Moon, 199517 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches vitreous enamel reverse painted on blown

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Dancing with Ganesha, 199319 x 12 inchesvitreous enamel reverse painted on blown glass

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EDUCATION

1976 BA, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Australia Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AlabamaChrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VirginiaCity of Everett, Everett, WashingtonCorning Museum of Glass, Corning, New YorkDavis, Wright & Tremaine, Seattle, WashingtonHokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, JapanHuntsville Museum of Art, Huntsville, AlabamaMicrosoft Corporation, Redmond, WashingtonMontgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AlabamaMountlake Terrace Public Library, Mountlake Terrace, WashingtonMuseum of Arts and Design, New York, New YorkMuseum of Glass, Tacoma WashingtonNordstrom, Inc., Seattle, WashingtonPacific First Center, Seattle, WashingtonRacine Art Museum, Racine, WisconsinSafeco Insurance, Seattle, WashingtonSea-Tac International Airport, Seattle, WashingtonSeattle Public Utilities Department, Seattle, WashingtonThe Evergreen State College, Olympia, WashingtonTacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WashingtonToledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OhioSwedish Medical Center, Seattle, WashingtonToyama City Institute of Glass Art, Toyama, JapanU. of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia, Washington (various public buildings)

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As a glass painter, I combine two ancient lineages in my work—that of the medieval artists who painted on stained glass and that of the Greek artisans who painted clay pots. Like them, I paint pictorial narratives but based upon images and themes from my personal life. Working with the mythopoetic materials of my life, I cast myself into scenes from vari-ous world spiritual traditions.

The panel and vessel forms I work with pull my work in opposite direc-tions. Stained glass is an architectural medium with a long history as a public art form. It belongs to the collective. The vessel exists on an intimate scale, relating to the individual in its form and function. This conflict finds expression in my work as a desire to communicate broadly on the one hand and an impulse to go deeply into the personal on the other.

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Mary Van Cline

Ivory Figure with Jade Leavesivory pate de verre

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Ivory Figure with Ivory Leaves, 200853 x 22 x 8 inchesivory pate de verre

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Mary Van Cline earned a degree in design and architecture from North Texas University in 1976, and a Masters in Art in1977. She was intro-duced to glass at the Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina in 1979 and went on to study at Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, where she earned her MFA in Glass Sculpture and Design in 1982. Van Cline’s inventive working process often combines hot and cold glass techniques, cast elements, and photosensitized glass into one piece. She worked with Kodak in the early ‘80’s to develop a positive photo emulsion to be coated on glass. She has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, Kent State and University of Ohio in Columbus, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Rhode Island School of Design, Boston Uni-versity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California College of Art, Oakland, Sheridan College, Toronto, Canada. She was one of the inaugu-ral fellows at the Creative Glass Center/Wheaton Glass in New Jersey in 1983 where she helped develop a program to allow artists into Wheaton Glass Factory and was invited back as a Masterwork artist in 1990. She is currently active on their board. In 1987, she was the youngest to be awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Japan/United States Friendship Commission their Cultural Exchange Award, a six-month residency in Japan. In 1988 at the Glasmuseum in Ebeltoft, Denmark, she accepted an award, the Fujita Prize from the National Liv-ing Treasure of Japan. In 1992, she won a Visual Artists Fellowship from the Washington State Arts Commission. She exhibited at Aperto Vetro Venezia at the Museo Correr (Venice, Italy) in 1996. She was awarded the Grand Prize at the Glass Kanazawa Museum in 1998 in Japan. A large photographic glass installation was commissioned by Arts America, a branch of the United States Information Agency for an exhibition “Nar-rative Art in Clay and Glass” in 1993, which was first exhibited at the Taft Museum (Cincinnati, Ohio) and then traveled to fourteen venues in Southeast Asia. Her work is in many private and museum collections around the world including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery; the Corning Museum of Glass; Kanazawa Museum in Japan; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Japan; and the Detroit Institute for the Arts.

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Transcript of a recording made in January 2011 in

Seattle, WA

Lisabeth How has living in Seattle, this community affected your work?

SonjaIt is a community. I think since I’ve been part of the community, for thirty years, it’s changed. I’ve changed so it’s changed. At times it’s been sup-portive and good to be a part of. At other times it has felt alienating, I think it’s sort of the all boats float together in the harbor kind of a thing.

Cappy All boats rise in the tide.

SonjaYeah, by being in a community everyone has risen together, and grown off of each other, brought it to the next level. I think it has been positive.

JennyI’d like to say that when I first got here in 1989 and I had the opportu-nity to work at Pilchuck. I met women, of a like minded spirit. For, all of my 20’s when I was working in New York in business, I felt like an alien. I didn’t have a tribe- tribal contact with people. I worked in small companies and most of the women were older than me. They were very threatened by me, I was a young executive. Karan Willabrank is my cousin, through her I met Kathy Chase and Ruburta Ikenburg and I met you Ginny. Then I met Sabrina and suddenly I felt, like, wow I’m not so freakazoid. I’m not such an alien. I am, a person and I’ve found some kin. It was only when I came here that I felt a sisterhood and I found a home. And that was twenty years ago. I met you Deb, and it time I met all of you. Had I not integrated with the Seattle sisterhood of women, who have conviction and beliefs and are in there working physically and mentally and spiritually and soulfully, then I don’t know that I would be where I am today. So I appreciate the city.

DeboraI think that this is one of the most supportive communities that I’ve ever, worked in. I’ve known Sabrina for about 20 years and I’ve had my daughter, my granddaughters and, gotten married. I can call any of the people you’re seeing around us and ask them questions: technical or just aesthetic, or personal. And it means the world to me, to have people who are so, kind and loving and sharing with their, own personal spirit. I think that’s what we all need.

JennyBut also I think there is, some competition between us all. I think we challenge each other. I think if we’re not challenging each other then our eyes aren’t open and our hearts aren’t beating.

LisabethBefore I moved to Seattle, I felt really isolated. I talked to the women around me they’d ask questions like: “What kind of laundry detergent do you use?”It was a whole different world and I came here and it was... I like your term sisterhood. There were people of like mind- um kindred spirits.

SonjaI think- being an artist is a choice of lifestyle, it was a choice of- not what I do or what media. It was a life style that I knew I wasn’t going to be in a little cubicle. I was odd-ball. But I did find my way in Seattle.

LisabethI think that we’re a community of artists, not a school of artists. I don’t think any of our work really has much to do with anyone else’ work. We’ve all developed our own particular style and approach.But usually when people talk about a school of art it’s as if they are all copying one another and using one another’ ideas. I think, our commu-nity is more about emotional support and maybe technical support-

Jennyand maybe business support? SonjaOther artists would see us as a school of glass.

DeboraI don’t know Sonya.

SonjaWe’re glass artists.

SabrinaYou know what? Let’s not deny it, let’s embrace it! Let’s embrace it!

SonjaI do, I do. I do., I’m a glass artist. I do.

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KEN SAUNDERS GALLERY