Contemporary Canadian Glass

Watcher #7, found wood, bent/fused glass, 16"H x 13" x 12", Ben Goodman, 2007

By Ben Goodman

Whenever I read one of Kevin Lockau’s articles, I am quickly engaged. He asks important questions and presents stimulating views that deserve consideration. In his article in the Winter ’08 journal, he talks about two issues – the need for artists to be aware of the environmental impact of their work and, secondly, how we achieve societal acceptance of our art and of us as artists.

Glassmaking is not a “green” process – not necessarily any worse than many other media, but not any better. Both the manufacture of the raw material (cullet, raw batch, colour bar) and the conversion of this material in hot glass studios to create the work, are both energy intensive processes that can have an undesirable environmental impact. The technology exists to reduce this impact but it does complicate the operation of most small studios. I refer to the potential to use window glass or bottle glass scrap – modified, as a raw material. This “scrap” is usually destined for landfill and is usually available locally saving a lot of transportation costs. I know of one studio that does melt window glass scrap with some success. The larger issue by far though, is the degree to which the desirable societal benefits that result from our art might mitigate any negative environmental impact, and how to attain this societal acceptance of our work.

As you walk through any urban landscape you are confronted with stuff; mall after mall, store after store, gallery after gallery – thousands and thousands of objects. Every imaginable material, colour, size, design, use, non-use! The inescapable conclusion is that the world is over indulged with stuff. The product of our work as artists/crafters can add to this stuff. As artists, making objects provides part or our entire livelihood. It also satisfies our need for self expression. In order to satisfy these needs, we risk adding to an already over-cluttered and indulged world. Can we reconcile our desire for self-expression so that we can make a living and still have a net benefit to society?

The way to deal with this question is to ensure that everything you produce has merit. And I don’t mean in just a casual sense. It has to have real merit. While it doesn’t entirely resolve the question of “overindulgence and clutter”, it does apply a test that should weed out the irrelevant. In the case of functional work, the merit must be a combination of usefulness and pleasure that can give the work honour in its final placement. In the case of non-functional work, the merit has to be in the meaning. It has to represent an important statement, or feeling of the creator. So, honour and meaning – both very positive attributes. As artists, we must each be our own most severe critics. We must edit our work to a very high standard, a standard we establish before we start to work.

A short anecdote from my student days at the Ontario College of Art illustrates this principle dramatically. As part of our final year critique, we were asked to set up a selection of our best work in a gallery setting. The head of the glass department, Karl Schantz, would join us and conduct the crit. We were all pumped up for this important event – a little nervous of course and quite proud of our work from the session just ending. After all, what we had set up, we thought, was the cream of all of our hard work over the last few months.

Karl entered the gallery dragging a garbage can and a large steel pipe. We were a bit apprehensive as these were not the usual props he brought with him to these crits. He then advised that we were to pick out what we considered the two best pieces of work from the collection we had set up. The rest we were to smash into the garbage can! We were all devastated at this enforced “edit” of what we had already thought was the best of our work. Some were close to tears. The point he demonstrated, successfully, was that it is a mistake to allow one’s work to become so precious that you lose sight of the quality and meaning that you had set out to achieve at the outset. This incident occurred over twenty years ago and I have never forgotten this important lesson. Perhaps we could all benefit by having a garbage can and a steel pipe sitting in the corner of our studio – a constant reminder to always strive for quality in our work.

I read a passage in a book some time ago that eloquently states the characteristics of hand crafted objects that can assure them a unique place in society: “the quality of the final piece should embody forever within itself some echo of the maker’s voice, some tremor of their hand, some molecule of their breath”.* Perhaps embodying these qualities ensures the merit and meaning that can give our work a positive place in society.

*From Measure of Love, Christopher Wilkins

Ben Goodman lives and works on Saltspring Island on the West Coast of BC. He is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art – 1990, past President of GAAC (1994-2002) and past editor of the Glass Gazette (1994-2004). These days, Ben indulges in more intellectual, mental art than physical art – another way to avoid adding to the world’s clutter. Perhaps this is a natural “production adjustment” phase that all artists go through over their creative life span. Visit: www.bengoodman.ca