Blog
Stories from the hotshop and beyond—reflections on making, embodiment, and becoming.
Prior to my amputation I found grounding in the beauty of the landscape around me. Since returning to glass blowing, I have been capturing the beauty of the mountains that sustained me.
I came to AUArts less than four months after the amputation of my left foot liberated me from the intense chronic pain of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). I was reclaiming my life, moving forward, and to date I hadn’t experienced any substantial setbacks or detours. My path to healing had been more linear than I could have imagined, and I yearned to portray my rebirth in glass with a majestic phoenix soaring upwards.
Before glass, my first love was weaving. I had given it up twenty years ago after a repetitive strain injury, but decided recently to give it another try. With greater appreciation these days for ergonomics and self-care, the return was joyous and fruitful. So many of the things I love about glass have harmonies in fiber--color, texture, the intense tactility of the making... Upon discovering a complex twill that creates a feather pattern, I instantly knew I wanted to join the two crafts and come up with a way to create woven glass. As I pursued the creation of a glass phoenix, I wanted to be able to make a garment with the same feathers...
The day I planned to sculpt my marionette’s legs, I found myself instead unraveling in a moment of pain, time, and memory. In the absence of making, I lived the work—inside a body negotiating trust, trauma, and the unfinished shape of healing.
Learning to work with assistants has opened a new vocabulary in my practice—one that extends beyond my own body. From reliquaries of loss to landscapes of memory, each piece is a conversation in trust, technique, and transformation.
In returning to glass after amputation, I expected to sculpt triumph—but what emerged were body parts: a hand, a foot, forms filled with memory and breath. Glass, like healing, revealed its own truths—responsive, imperfect, and deeply alive.