Taking a trip down the creative route: how Bonnie conceptualizes her work

The thing that struck me about Bonnie was her enthusiasm for trying new techniques, testing new ideas. I think this passion helps to keep her work (any artist's work I imagine) fresh and satisfying. I could sense the adventure in her work, a desire to try something new, to get beyond the “expected.” Most of her fused glass work contains a “surprise” element. I especially liked how she used bones as design elements in a series of decorative fused glass work.

So during my interaction with Bonnie, I tried to trace the inception and transformation of a creative idea. How does an artist's mind work? Bonnie shared with me this very very valuable but invisible process. She described how she incorporated deer bones as design elements.

“I found the deer bones in the woods. And I thought they were a wonderful design element because there is something timeless about bones. Because they are so beautiful and usually unseen,” she explained. The theme followed in a variety of decorative pieces, each piece displayed a new variation. Now she wants to continue that theme in three dimensional artworks.

From creative stand point, Bonnie said, one piece leads to the next piece. She quoted her poetry professor at Ohio University who said “ ‘even if you’re working on this you are always working on the next one.’” Bonnie said that’s true of her glass art too.

“When I am working, I keep I my mind open to new ideas,”she said. Bonnie pointed out a seemingly obvious but a really important and interesting fact: When she is making a particular creative choice for a particular piece; she is also eliminating many other creative options. So as one design takes shape, she continues contemplating “what if I’d have done that instead of this.” And the creative journey continues.

“The more I work, the more ideas come to me: the vocabulary of shape, form, rhythm, repetition, color and light... the more choices you see, the more possibilities emerge,” she explained.

Here is a series of pictures wherein Bonnie used bones as the design element. With each piece she tried something new, something that she didn't do in the earlier piece. One piece emerged from the other. (pictures are not in the order of production).

The arrangement below is a crude reproduction of how these different elements are fused together to form the design. (That's where her vision comes into play!) The trace of bones is created using black glass powder. Other components such as the pattern bars, other glass items are placed and then everything goes inside the kiln with layers of glass on top and at the bottom (if) required. It could take many number of firings till the desired design takes shape!

Be original...

Originality matters to her. But that is not to say that she doesn’t keep track of what’s happening in the art world. There are some artists whom she respects and buys their books to learn new techniques. But rather than merely emulating, she incorporates those ideas in her projects in her own way.

She tries to imbibe the same outlook in her students. Bonnie is wonderful at sketching, so her stained/copper foil glass designs are original and inspiring. She encourages students to try new designs, even if they are not as accomplished as her in sketching. She showed me how anyone can create new designs using just a set square and a pen. She made a quick design on graph paper, simply letting one line lead to the other. An original design emerged before me within seconds.

She is also quite meticulous about taking notes while firing up pieces for fused glass work:detailed notes of what worked, what didn't. So, it's not just the creative instinct but also the discipline that lightens up the world of art with novelty.

The Notebook: what was right, what went wrong!

Limitless possibilities...

I asked her why she continued to work with glass. She said she always finds more things she can do with glass. “You could spend a lifetime but not explore all the facts,” the words revealed her true and limitless passion for glass. She also loves her teaching job. “Magic of teaching is that you are always learning,” she said." The questions from students broaden my horizon."

Charming beautiful Athens...

Bonnie enjoys living in Athens. “Athens is a very small town. But the food is very good, the music is very good, art venues are very good and the university culture is sophisticated,” she shared her love for Athens. She feels fortunate to be able to enjoy such "cultural sophistication." She goes back to New York to visit her family and when she misses big museums and Broadway.

Bonnie exhibits her work also in a gallery in Marietta called “Riverside Artists”. She has significant amount of work on display there. When she has a day off from the school, she spends time in the gallery. It’s a co-op owned by 16 artists.

You can also visit her website to explore and buy her work.

Visiting the mystical world of stained and fused glass with Bonnie Proudfoot (Part I)

I met Bonnie Proudfoot in her studio at her residence in beautiful countryside of Athens. Upon my request, we had decided to talk in her studio. Conversing with artists in their studios (where they can show me around) is fun and also educational. Talking with them in a studio has two distinct advantages. For a novice art writer like me, the context of studio helps understand “technical aspetcs of art” better because I can see the machinery (and exactly know what they are talking about). It also helps to bring out nuances of "work routines" of artists. So I am grateful to Bonnie for welcoming me into her creative space and sharing secrets of glass art with me, quite patiently.

As soon as I stepped into the studio, decorative glass art pieces on the wall caught my attention: a large half-circle shaped piece in the window, a bright colorful wall piece depicting a chicken and many other fused glass art pieces. The studio wore a busy look--it was full of materials and machinery required for Bonnie’s glass art. A huge white machine (which I later learned was a kiln) sat on one side. There were sheets of coloredglass arranged in a cabinet across from the entrance. I could picture Bonnie in the studio, engrossed in her work on a quiet summer afternoon.

The art piece by Bonnie Proudfoot installed in the window of her studio

Bonnie has been working with glass for more than 30 years. Her love for glass started with a casual college job at a studio that made glass lamps and repaired stained glass windows in Buffalo, NY. “That looks like fun, I will do it,” Bonnie recalled her reaction as she began working in the studio. She did that job for a year and found herself extremely fascinated with glass.

She mentioned that stained glass windows are being built since the 1100s’. In stained glass technique, colorful pieces of glass are fitted into channels made of lead and joined together to form different designs. Many churches have old stained glass windows and those often need to be restored, as over the years the lead stretches and the cement that holds the pieces together breaks down.

Another colorful and well designed art piece by Bonnie Proudfoot

In the 1900s’, copper foil method, which tends to be more free and allows greater freedom to put more intricate designs together, was introduced. In that method, a copper foil is wrapped around the edges of the pieces of glass and then soldered together to make a design. Bonnie is an expert in that method as well and has made numerous lamps, windows, and other types of art pieces. She has exhibited her work at many art shows.

Bonnie enjoys creating glass art for church windows. “Church windows are important because they are spiritual symbols,” she said. She showed me the pictures of leaded stained glass window project she completed for a chapel in a vey big church in Lynchburg, Va. She also repairs stained glass windows to date.

Bonnie is an accomplished fused glass artist too. In fact, she is well known for using this technique to create decorative art pieces. Below, you can see an elegant art work created using that technique.

Fused glass art work by Bonnie Proudfoot

Apart from being a professional artist she also teaches full time, courses in art appreciation and communication, at Hocking College. It’s only fitting that she designed the glass program at Hocking College. She came to Athens in 1996 to pursue doctoral program in creative writing at Ohio University. After finishing her coursework, she accepted a teaching position at Hocking College. Her undergraduate degree is in art education and she has two masters­­­­—one in creative writing with a secondary concentration in fine art, and the another in English literature.

More about this wonderful artist and her artistic endeavours in the next post.