When glass artist Beth Lipman first spoke about her installation work before her twin girls were born, she stated: “Creative energy is a powerful force. I am always careful about what I put out in the universe because I believe creative power is one of the most potent human beings have to work with.”
This philosophy bears fruit, figuratively and literally, in her exquisite glass sculptures and limited edition C-Prints mounted on plexiglass on display at Tory Folliard Gallery in their exhibition “The Object Transcended.” Two smaller glass sculptures at Folliard\'s, Pear Centerpiece and Puddle of Fruit, display her familiar subjects, fruit, often with other objects, which infer what past and present society imparts value to. These sculptures offer a sample of Lipman\'s larger installations and works which have won her international acclaim and transcend the traditional still life with transparent or translucent beauty.
Lipman references these object\'s monetary and metaphysical value by portraying them in decay, broken and then how they might be destroyed over time, juxtaposing their possible current worth to future value. This references the still life genre, especially in the tradition of the Dutch and Flemish painters, from the 17th to 20th century. During the gallery\'s Saturday afternoon opening, Lipman graciously answered questions regarding her art and future exhibitions in glass.
How has living with twin girls impacted your creative work?
Before they were born, I wasn\'t sure how they would affect my work [In 2011, now two and a half years old]. It\'s a full life, and somehow you continue on. My husband is my business and studio manager, and supports my work by helping raise the girls. I\'m only consulting a little as the past John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts In Industry Coordinator and work on my art full time.
San Francisco\'s De Young Museum recently purchased one of your glass sculptures. Could you mention what they purchased?
That piece is still going through the acquisition process, the various committees and protocol necessary for a museum to purchase an artwork. It\'s a black laid table from 2009, about five feet by three and a half feet. A smaller version, similar to the laid table [A black round table covered in Victorian precious objects and fruit] that the Milwaukee Art Museum purchased a few years ago. [Currently not on exhibition due to the permanent collection space at the museum being redesigned].
What exhibitions are you preparing for in the future?
In January, I\'m participating in an exhibition “One and the Other” at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach [Florida]. It\'s very interesting because they [the museum] have early settlers buried in their basement. On was Richard Hone, a pineapple grower, and I\'m doing a composite portrait of myself and him, for the museum in this exhibition on still life. [The work references their permanent collection and sits atop a glass coffin, www.norton.org].
And what else is coming up in 2012?
In fall 2012, I\'m preparing for a solo show at the Heller Gallery in New York. I\'m preparing some pieces for a big exhibition in 2013 at the Weisman Museum in Minneapolis on Marsden Hartley. [A modernist painter born in 1878 and working in the United States, Germany and Paris in the first half of the 20th century]. The space is 70 feet long by 50 feet and quite large. I plan on making glass wallpaper, furniture and reliefs eluding to his practice and career. Two pieces that will appear in another exhibition before that will be full size glass crib and a shaker rocker, the moribund juxtaposed with the other [birth]. One exhibition builds on another, and I will show these few pieces first and gives me the chance to complete enough work for the large exhibition at the Weisman in 2013.
How is your glass sculpture evolving?
The work always involves still life, portraiture through objects within the still life genre. But now I\'m concerned with mortality and identity. And while I enjoy the photographic prints, I will be doing more glass sculpture in the future. Using clear glass. We\'re building a small studio in Sheboygan Falls for smaller works although the large pieces will still be done in the Sturgeon Bay studio.
What do you enjoy so much about working in the glass medium?
Glass, and mainly clear glass, is a force to be reckoned with. The material and process is part of the continual challenge. To capture a specific moment in time with this process. The control [of the medium], it\'s ephemeral but tangible. The strength and fragility and purity in the clear glass. There\'s cracking, breaking, dirt, bubbles…the essence to life in the material is evident.
Beth Lipman recently was awarded a United States Artist Berman Bach unrestricted $50,000 fellowship for artistic excellence in the field of craft and traditional arts, one of only 50 innovative artists working in the country. See her glass sculpture and photographic c-prints at Tory Folliard Gallery in “The Object Transcended” through December 31.
