Are dystopian readings of your work fair or are they missing something more complex? What is the role of grossness in your work? And what do you consider to be the difference between seeing and listening? Artists Kimberly Thomas and Britt Ransom join in a discussion on invention, speculative (non-)fiction, intuition, and thought walks.

"As a human experiencing the world as it changes, the idea of attachment and the changing world is implied because everything changes. To move forward, things have to change. Do you feel like at some point your idea about keeping things or being attached to things would change for you too? Is it necessary? This tree was a root and it grew into this, but the future may be more wonderful than what is now."

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Transcript available on the GEEX website.

Thanks to Wet Dog Glass and His Glassworks for sponsoring this episode!

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Featured Speakers:

• Kimberly Thomas (@iroczii): Interdisciplinary sculptor and flameworker, currently in residence at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. Visit Kimberly's website.

• Britt Ransom (@brittransom_studio): Artist and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Visit Britt's website.

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• Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/

• ...And subscribe to the GEEX Talks lecture series! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/

• GEEX Graduation Bundles: Available for a limited time on the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/

• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald.

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Selected questions from the audience:

• INTRO: Can you talk about your general impressions of each other's practices? What did you learn from listening to each other's lectures?

• INVENTION, FABRICATION, & PUSHING MATERIALS TO THEIR LIMITS:

◦ FOR BRITT: Britt mentioned that 3D-modeling doesn't necessarily "want" to scan or copy something as fragile and complex as the work you produce. Why is pushing the limit of 3D-printing and other computer-aided tools an important part of your practice?

◦ FOR KIM: Kim discussed how she mixes her own colors and you frequently push the boundaries of what glass can do — whether that's incorporating mixed materials like metal or making sculptures with moving parts — while making the fantastical inventions featured in your work. What is the importance of invention and fabrication in your practice, and how do they relate to each other?

• SCI-FI, SPECULATIVE FICTION, & CYBORGS: Thinking of a line from Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: "The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind, and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees." Is science fiction or speculative fiction an important resource for you and your work? What authors or books have been important to you? Do you feel that dystopian readings of your work are accurate or are they missing something more complex?

• SCALE SHIFT (MICRO, MINIATURE, & HUMAN-SCALE): Britt shifts the microscopic to human-scale, and Kim does the inverse by replicating human-scale objects in miniature. Can you talk about the significance of scale in your work?

• THOUGHT WALKS (RESEARCH, INTUITION, AND OBSERVATION): You both mentioned going on "thought walks," which made me think about how your practices balance research, intuition, and observation. What do you learn from thought walks? How does what happens "outside of the studio" influence your studio practice?

• SEEING VS DEEP LISTENING: What do you consider to be the difference between seeing and listening? How does that relate to the genesis and making of your work?

• CURRENT/NEW DIRECTIONS: How have storytelling and autobiography entered into your recent work? Can you talk about new and current directions in your studio practice?

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Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

What is the significance of adornment relative to your work? How do the many functions of jewelry — as a collection, as a resource, or as an aspect of cultural participation — resonate with the kinds of work you create? Artists Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez and Dyani White Hawk join in a discussion on untold histories, their artistic process, and the presence of glass in their work.

"Oftentimes, when the work is of large scale, it's because I want people to feel immersed in that space and the care of that repetitive motion. One stroke at a time or one bead at a time: it's an example of care and the accumulation of care. In thinking about the intimacy of exchange in a single bead: that tiny item is impregnated with so much meaning and intentionality. Sometimes that intimate exchange can feel just as profound — sometimes even more profound — than a big, huge, giant exchange."

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Transcript available on the GEEX website.

Thanks to Bullseye Glass Company and Vetro Vero for sponsoring this episode!

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Featured Speakers:

• Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez (@internet___angel): Visual artist based in Philadelphia and director of the Bead Project at UrbanGlass. Visit Victoria's website.

• Dyani White Hawk (@dwhitehawk): Multidisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. Visit Dyani's website.

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• Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/

• ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/

• Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/

• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald.

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Selected questions from the audience:

• PROCESS (VICTORIA): How do you balance the writing process with your sculptural work? Does your perspective shift during the transition from writing to a physical medium?

• ADORNMENT: Thinking about beads and jewelry: what is the significance of adornment relative to your work? How do the many functions of jewelry — as a collection, as a resource, or as an aspect of cultural participation — resonate with the kinds of work you create?

• MATERIAL & MEANING: Do you ascribe particular meanings to repeated motifs/materials in your work? Are these fixed meanings or more fluid?

• FOR DYANI: It seems that doors/windows have been recurring imagery in your work since "Seeing," which you shared was completed during your MFA while growing more familiar with Western art history. How has learning about Western art history impacted your relationship with the audience and your perceptions of how they may interpret your work?

• COLLABORATION: Connections and collaboration with other community members and artists are a major component of some of your pieces. Can you talk more about why that is, how you form these collaborative relationships, and why you feel they are important in your work?

• MATERIAL & MEDIUM: Thinking about the significance of how we understand and categorize our artistic practice. Dyani, your understanding of your practice — concerning glass — has shifted the scale and spaces your work occupies while remaining true to practices you began as a teenager. Victoria, you have worked with molten glass for a long time but also simultaneously work in poetry. How does your understanding of your chosen "forms" or "mediums" impact how you consider or contextualize your work?

• TRANSPARENCY AND OPACITY: Considering the distinct difference between the parts of Victoria's talk: formally discussing the Bead Project versus reading poetry and prose during the slides of your work. This reminds me of the questions Dyani shared during the Carry series slides: "When Native artists bring with us the artistic traditions and knowledge of our people into museum and gallery spaces: how does the function of the work change? What do we intentionally carry with us into these spaces? What do we leave out?" How do you balance transparency and opacity in your artistic practice? How do you determine what to share and what to protect or "hold dear"?

• SCALE AND IMPACT: Both of you work and/or teach with the impossibly small unit of beads, and yet you both have a grand impact on your communities concerning power. Could you speak to this dynamic? Do you see a connection between the aggregate nature of beads as a material and the messages or impact of your work?

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Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

What is the significance of reinvestigating and recreating historic processes? Artist Raghvi Bhatia and historian of science Dr. Marvin Bolt discuss alternative histories of the telescope, the concept of loanwords and "loancraft" objects, and the critical value of embodied knowledge.

"The context is always there. It's always in the roots. And — in a lot of different schools of thought — we've kind of been trained to ignore those contexts especially when the context relates to U.S. or Eurocentric modes of power. If I work with a kind of glass that's produced industrially in North America, and it was developed for the Studio Glass Movement: no one asks me about the context of the material I'm using."

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Transcript available on the GEEX website.

Made possible by the Center for Craft. Thanks to Bullseye Glass Company and His Glassworks for sponsoring this episode!

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Featured Speakers:

• Raghvi Bhatia (@raghvib): Visual artist. Visit Raghvi's website.

• Dr. Marvin Bolt: Historian of science and curator emeritus of science and technology at the Corning Museum of Glass. Visit Dr. Bolt's ResearchGate profile.

Additional Links:

• "Dioptrice: Examining and Cataloguing the World's Oldest Surviving Telescopes" (JSTOR)

• "Undersea Adventures: The Marine Invertebrate Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka"

• Giannis Antetokoumpo: "There Is No Failure in Sports"

• Arnold Schoenberg: "String Quartet No.2, Op.10"

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• Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/

• ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/

• Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/

• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

—

Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald.

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Selected questions from the audience:

• SUCCESS/FAILURE: How do you define success and failure (artistically, scientifically, or historically)? Thinking of glass, do you define success by controlling the will of the material or working with it?

• 'NEW' OLD GLASS: Thinking about how both of you are reinvestigating and recreating old processes (i.e. Tschirnhaus' double lens burning apparatus, Zellige tiling, etc.) What is the impetus or impact of repurposing these methods? What do you hope to learn?

• SHADOWS: How is mimicry related to the idea of a subjective truth of reality? How is this variation connected to the dichotomy of reflecting/absorbing?

• PRACTICE: I have noticed that people in STEM are intimidated or discouraged because of a belief in art as an innate talent versus something that is actively developed. What would you suggest to change this mindset?

• ARTISTIC GROWTH: Have you ever conceptualized your practice as other than a religious sect? What did that look/feel like and how did that thought process evolve over time?

• ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES: Can you speak to alternative histories of the telescope outside of Europe and the U.S.? What was the impact of the telescope's introduction to other cultures and communities?

• LOOKING AT, LOOKING THROUGH, LOOKING INTO: How do you distinguish the ideas of looking at, looking through, and looking into? How does it impact or change the way you see and learn?

Thanks to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for sharing questions!

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Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

What does it mean to learn, think with, and remember the Middle Passage? Artist KING COBRA and Dr. Kerry Sinanan discuss contemporary and historic glass, the violence of consumption, and the transatlantic slave trade.

"Art, craft, glassmaking: we need multiple points of reconnection to these deliberately obscured and submerged memories. I'm in a state where they're about to legislate so that we cannot teach any of these things — they've done it in Florida, Alabama, Georgia [and] Arizona. We're about to see a rollout across the United States of a deliberate attempt to excise thinking of that violence, people's own histories, stories, and facts. So it's become rather urgent."

Transcript available on the GEEX website.

Made possible by the Center for Craft. Thanks to Wet Dog Glass and Vetro Vero for sponsoring this episode!

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Featured Speakers:

• KING COBRA (@the_silicon_don and @flesh_and_fluid): sculptor and body modifier. Visit KING COBRA's website.

• Dr. Kerry Sinanan: Assistant Professor of Transatlantic Literature from the 18th and 19th centuries at the University of Texas-San Antonio. Visit Kerry's website.

Additional Links:

• "Heterogeneous Blackness: Peter Brathwaite's Eighteenth-Century Re-portraits"

• "In Sparkling Company: Reflections on Glass in the 18th-Century British World"

—

• Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/

• ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/

• Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/

• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

—

Theme music by Podington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald.

Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

geex.glass/

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Selected questions from the audience:

• REMEMBERING: Can you talk about memory? Through your work, what does it mean to learn, think with, and remember the Middle Passage?

• VIOLENCE: We received a few questions about the representation (or glorification) of violence. One of the key links between your talks is an insistence on perceiving and remembering historic and ongoing violence. With that in mind, what is the value of creating representations of and critically engaging with violence?

• HISTORY: How do you look at, consider, or perceive representations of glass (or consumption) from the 18th to 19th century? How does this impact your perception of objectivity and the framing of history?

• LUMINOSITY: How would you define the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment? What are some key philosophies and ideas that continue to inform how we perceive the world today?

• PANDEMIC: Can you talk more about disease relative to your work? Thinking about the visibility of disease, both historic and ongoing, and the cultural differences that can perpetuate and foster infectious disease.

• STRENGTHS: What tools and skills and resources have you found within your neurodivergence that make you exceptional in the glass studio?

• WHY GLASS?: What is it like to learn about contemporary glass or glass-adjacent art practices? What is your material relationship to glass?

• GUIDANCE: What would you say to young artists who don't believe in their work and don't believe they are good enough?

Thanks to educators and learners from Urban Glass and Hastings College for sharing questions!

How can nurturing kinship shift the present, history, and future of studio glass? Artists Cedric Mitchell and Corey Pemberton, representing the Better Together events series for Black and Brown makers, join in conversation with citizen artist vanessa german and discuss your questions.

"Not everybody is returning the circle. Not every glassblower you know — not every artist you know — is making the connection and gathering human beings into circle, into spiral, the way that you are. So how then do you recognize other circle keepers when you bring people together? Are you recognizing in young people the carrying capacity to restore the circle? And are you speaking that into them and saying, 'Hey, I see this in you'? And are you looking at what ingredients of love you're working with?"

Transcript available on the GEEX website.

Made possible by the Center for Craft. Thanks to Wet Dog Glass and Pittsburgh Glass Center for sponsoring this episode!

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This episode features:

• Corey Pemberton (@instantglassic): glassblower, painter, and artist-organizer. Visit Corey's website.
• Cedric Mitchell (@cedricmitchelldesign): glassblower, designer, and artist-organizer. Visit Cedric's website.
• vanessa german (@vanessalgerman): citizen artist. Check out her work via Kasmin Gallery.

Additional links:

• Better Together (@bettertogether_ctf): Learn more about Better Together.
• Crafting the Future (@crafting_the_future): Become a Futurist!

—

• Support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast! https://geex.glass/support/donate/
• ... And subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/
• Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/
• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

—

Theme music by Poddington Bear. Additional music in this episode by Otis McDonald.

Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

geex.glass/

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Questions from the audience:

• INTRO: Can you talk about what kinship means to you and your practice? From GEEX Staff.
• ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS: Thinking about how structures can support and reinforce kinship: How do you develop equitable community spaces? What guidelines, tenets, or community agreements were used in the development of CTF (Crafting The Future) and Better Together? What were some agreements for the ArtHouse? Were there resources (info, frameworks, etc.) from other organizations you looked at during programmatic development, and could you expand on that process?
• LEARNING FROM THE MARGINS: How does this work integrate backward into education in glass as well? How do we reshape the educational environments where glass is learned?
• COMMUNITY: Art school can have a kind of dog-eat-dog, individual mentality. How can we invite a more collaborative, supportive, community environment in art education?
• DELINEATION: Do you see definitions between art, activism, and acts of wellness?
• LOVING INSTITUTIONS: What was one of your favorite moments from a residency program? A subscriber mentions: "The directive that art institutions should be centers of love and joy is very powerful - it is such a great thing to provide that moves away from logistics, meeting goals, and statistics for the staff." Have you seen models in the world of foundations and funding that are supportive of quality of experience vs quantitative data?
• ALTERNATIVE SPACES: How do you seek support for openly engaging art outside of the institution that impacts neighbors and community members in the streets, sidewalks, and front porches, rather than the museum?
• CONVERSATION: Artmaking as a way to describe and treat mental health issues is commonly experienced, but maybe not expressed. How can we break down stigmas concerning mental health, and include a more open dialogue about mental health, trauma, and struggles in our work and communities?
• VISIBILITY: How has representation (or a lack thereof) affected your development as an artist?
• ADVICE: What do you wish you were told when becoming an artist?
• INFLUENCE: What is one of the most powerful moments in your life that shaped you into the artist you are today?
• SHIFTING STUDIO GLASS: What does Shifting Studio Glass Histories mean to you? What does it mean to recenter the history or future of glass, craft, and art? What would you like to focus on instead?
• WHY GLASS?: What about the material or process drew you towards working with or in this field?

Thanks to educators and learners from UW-Madison, Urban Glass, Ohio State University, and Hastings College for sharing questions!

With the support of the Center for Craft, GEEX (the Glass Education Exchange) is proud to launch the first season of the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast: "Expanded Glass Histories."

Each episode will offer a conversation between glass artists and researchers paired around one of the three themes to expand glass craft histories beyond the American Studio Glass movement.

The GEEX Team strongly believes in the power of conversation and storytelling: to shift perspectives, connect people, and rethink possible futures. Join us in this new format to learn more from the GEEX Talks lecture series!

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• Want to support the GEEX Talks Q&A Podcast? https://geex.glass/support/donate/
• Subscribe to GEEX Talks! https://geex.glass/support/subscribe/
• Want merch? Check out the GEEX Shop! https://geex.glass/shop/
• Follow @geexglass on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

—

Theme music by Poddington Bear. "O. Sky" by Otis McDonald.

Edited and produced by Emily Leach and Ben Orozco.

geex.glass/