Glass art by Lauri Wilson
This past weekend I was attending a one day art show in River Falls, Wisconsin, along the banks of the Kinnikinic River. Among the many fine artist showing their trade was a familiar face, glass artist Lauri Wilson. I have known Wilson since I was a kid growing up in the small Western-Wisconsin town, and over the years have become familiar with her work as a well established stained glass artist, yet this year Wilson’s work showed something completely different. Wilson’s booth featured a collection of abstracted pieces inspired by nature and created through a technique called “warmglass”(a process of fusing glass together at lower temperatures). The artist herself describes the inspiration and technique behind her work as such:
“I have forever had a love affair with the bluffs and fields of the rural landscape of Western Wisconsin. Prairies textured with grasses and flowers, fields pinstriped by rows of corn, silhouettes of burly oaks, the bluff line and how it meets the sky….these are things that inspire my work. Most recently, I have been playing with these elements in an abstract way, reinterpreting how I see their color, line, and texture. I enjoy the challenge of working with glass and light as my medium, it is both technically challenging and uniquely beautiful. Fusing is a method where individual pieces of glass are assembled flat and then fired in a kiln to melt, or “fuse”, together as one. I think of my work as a form of painting done in glass. This method offers compositional control while still allowing the spontaneity of flowing glass and the interaction of the element of light.”
Wilson’s work is currently shown exclusively through Seasons on St. Croix (a small arts gallery in Hudson, Wisconsin) as well as at a variety of art shows with pieces ranging in price from $25 to $450. You can see more of Wilson’s work or contact her via her website at www.ilwacoglass.com.
