Margaret Queen - "Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color"

About the Artist:

Margaret Queen Headshot

I am a candidate for the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Professional Degree Specializing in Glass and if my honors thesis defense goes well, I will Graduate with Distinction in the Arts thanks to an abundance of fantastic caring people! Okay, and my lifelong love of learning. I am overwhelmingly grateful for the wonderful opportunities given to me as a student in The Ohio State University College of Arts & Sciences Department of Art, which includes a remarkable study abroad in Italy that had a huge positive impact on my art and my life.

Insta @margaretlqueen

 


Artwork by Margaret Queen
"Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color" Bullseye Glass powder and frits, Pâte de Verre, March 2020, 13.25’’ x5.25’’
"Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color" Bullseye Glass powder and frits, Pâte de Verre, March 2020, 13.25’’ x5.25’’
Artwork by Margaret Queen
"Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color" Bullseye Glass powder and frits, Pâte de Verre, March 2020, 13.25’’ x5.25’’
"Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color" Bullseye Glass powder and frits, Pâte de Verre, March 2020, 13.25’’ x5.25’’

 

My glass art making expresses the wonder and beauty I see in everyday objects and materials, especially their shapes, textures, structure, and flexibility. Pâte de Verre (French for “Paste of Glass”) casting gives models that I sculpt into form a life in glass crafting them into something colorfully different, inspiring curiosity within the viewer.

“Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color” came to life by shaping flexible aluminum duct into a circle, making a plaster silica mold of the duct, cutting and pulling the metal out of the mold which is really quite fun, cleaning all the loose bits of plaster out in which an air hose comes in handy, coating the mold interior with non-clear shellac thinned with denatured alcohol which was a new process life saver in itself, then pasting inside the mold (casting) spoonful by spoonful by spoonful, layer by layer by layer…mixtures of gum arabic and/or water with Bullseye Glass crystal clear glass powder, crystal clear fine and medium glass frits, and a fun array as many colors as I wanted of transparent and opaque medium glass frits. A kiln takes care of the heat work from 0 to 1425 degrees and slowly cools down to room temperature during the very important annealing stage. The newly formed glass work is removed from the plaster silica mold then thoroughly cleaned.

“Wunderkammer 10: Spoonfuls of Color” is the latest in the Wunderkammer series I began in 2018. I am thankful, humbled, and honored that Wunderkammers 1-2, 3, 4, and 7 were selected for scholarship awards and juried gallery exhibitions. Wunderkammers 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2 were selected for a juried advanced sculpture students group gallery exhibition that I am thankful to have curated. 

I am overwhelming grateful to the talented and caring professors, adjunct instructors, teaching associates, academic advisors, and gallerists who have supported my work and helped me advance in so many ways. Thank you so much!! 

NOTE: My original studio work plan for this BFA exhibition was briskly interrupted, as well as every other person’s life on this earth, by COVID-19. Wunderkammer 10.1-15: About the Body, Energy, and Reflections of Glass is to be continued into the near future.