Featured Artist Dana Zed

Artist Dana Zed shares a collection of illuminated sculptural glass boxes that hint at other dimensions, mystery and magic. See more of her portfolio on her website.

 

 

I first encountered glass at Rhode Island School of Design where Dale Chihuly was teaching. I saw what a magical thing glass could be from his dynamic enthusiasm. During my college years, however, I was focused more on painting and creative writing. I mention this because I am an artist who works in more than one media to this day.

 

 

After college I left the east coast and moved to San Francisco; there, I stumbled upon glass again. This time it stuck.

 

 

I began working in the Mission district at a place called “Magic Glass” making glass display cases. A group of about a dozen of us worked in a barn making 6-foot-tall glass cabinets that had electrical wiring, storage places and locking parts. By the time Magic Glass made its last case, the display cases we made were all over the world.

 

 

I was a builder and was able to take home an enormous amount of plate/float glass. I began throwing the glass into a kiln and melting all kinds of objects into the glass, some of which worked and some of which didn’t. It was all trial and error. This was back in the days before Bullseye Glass and the beginning of the fusing movement.

 

 

With my background in painting, I find that the box form I work with is perfect for me as it allows me to make four small panels at a time, front and back.

 

 

Glass is a magical medium. It is hard yet invisible, solid and yet transmits light. Glass is my preferred media to express philosophical ideas. Glass has mystery and requires intense craftsmanship. Designs are cut meticulously out of sheet copper and then melted between two sheets of glass to form a panel. The copper turns varying shades of red during the high temperatures of the kiln firing.

 

 

Afterwards, the copper is no longer subject to our world of space, time, air and change but is forever the same trapped inside the glass. The alchemy of this appeals to me.

 

 

The glass boxes contain non-linear narratives—they contain atmospheres that are both stimulating and nourishing. They raise questions that don’t always provide an answer. My viewers are invited to enter into a realm where there is often an object from above hanging over something underneath.

 

 

I reference the physical world and the non-physical world in my work. Sometimes the box-like structures contain objects. There may be an empty chair or broken shells or a pendulum of sorts, which start the viewer thinking in a certain direction without actually taking them anywhere. Often my glass pieces are illuminated from within.

I am interested in magic and other dimensions and my intention is to awaken that interest in others.

 

Artist Dana Zed invites you to follow her on Instagram.

 

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