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Dear studio friends, Am I hiding in the studio or trying to stay creative amid the continued destruction of layers of our democracy and humanity? Some days I'm not sure which it is. It's easy to feel helpless seeing what's happening, but I'm trying to listen, watch, and pay attention. My daily life remains relatively unaffected, for now, by the current geopolitical situation, putting me in a very privileged position that I don't take for granted. I know this could change at any moment, as it has for so many people. So, while I can, I'm continuing to work on things that help me learn and think. I've been slowly moving forward with research into kiln casting glass, which is a big undertaking for me in terms of learning and technical research. I'm very grateful to those who have been so generous with their time, sharing resources and information with me. For about a year now, I've been gathering materials and supplies, taking baby steps when time allows. The idea is to eventually incorporate elements of cast glass into concrete sculptures to allow some pieces of light to be transmitted through the piece. My first step in this project is making a group of small cast glass objects as tests. I've created several small wax pieces which will become glass through a process similar to the lost wax method used for casting bronze sculptures. These test pieces will show me what it's like to work with cast glass and hopefully provide insight into increasing the scale. I love the contrast between the ubiquity and simplicity of glass's base material – silica (sand) – and the countless ways it's been used throughout history and woven into our lives and technology. I'm excited to work with it, even in a small way. I made a few small pieces with ice to get a sneak peek into the concept of using a translucent material. Ice is obviously very different from glass in many ways, but it gave me some valuable insights. The Broken Box assignment continues. Below are a few pieces from the month of March. The full gallery is on my website here if you’d like to scroll through more of them. I normally make these boxes at the end of the day, after all other work and chores are done. During this past month, I noticed each day's box started capturing the feeling or atmosphere of that day, like a log entry, summing up a moment or reflecting on what had happened. This marks a change from the first two months, where making the boxes was mostly about considering the ideas of brokenness and boxiness. It's been interesting to see influences from each particular day starting to guide decisions. We’ll see how things continue. Thank you for joining me. I hope y’all are well. More soon, Lydia
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