Stories of Light

In this series, I explore how light interacts with translucent surfaces—most notably glass—through abstract art. Using acrylic paint, mixed paper, and alcohol inks on wood panel, I play with the ways that light encounters and touches a surface. My art materials are opaque, yet they are meant to give the illusion of translucency with the colours and layers of paint I use. 

I am particularly fascinated by the intricacies, layers, shapes, and colours that emerge in stained glass. Glass is a chemical combination of sand and soda ash, which are heated to extreme temperatures until they melt and flow. To impart colour to the glass, certain minerals and elements are mixed in. Once malleable, the glass can be molded, cast, blown, pressed, or drawn into its desirable form. Glass literally makes beauty from ashes through the crucible of fire. Stained glass takes this process further, as the hardened glass must be scored, fractured, chipped, and then pieced together again with heated lead or copper stripping to fit the artist’s design. 

In many ways I identify my personal journey with these processes as I grapple with the ongoing strain of living with a complex chronic illness. I can only trust that the intense heat, the trace elements of colour, the fractures, and the patchwork of broken pieces are slowly transforming me from dust and ashes into a vessel of beauty and light.