The Hand-Formed Fine Glass Sculptures
My feeling in using the vintage glass that comprises most of my sculptures is that a particular "current" of inspiration motivated the hot glass artisans of Italy, France, the US, and Canada from the 1940's and into the 1970's. These unnamed artists, who worked as production craftsmen for the large art glass companies and did not sign their works, it seems did not know that they were true shaman and wisdom keepers. That they tapped into the greater cosmos through their chosen field of creativity is now self-evident.
In their time, production art glass was a recognized import for the trend- conscious "modern" household and began to be owned by collectors. I have enhanced these glass craftsmen's vision through my attunement to a current that now counsels me to place pieces from sometimes disparate sources into intimate, permanent contact through the use of high-tech epoxy adhesives.
I hope to do justice to the inspirations of these originators by combining pieces to create completed objects which appear to be made of anatomical elements designed from the start to be permanently attached in order to form a single entity. In some cases, pieces are used as is. More often though, I modify them through cutting, polishing, grinding and drilling and may add a new piece of blown art glass to complement and finish my sculptures into a cohesive whole. At no time do I use pieces signed by artists. So hail to those unsung glass shaman of old, who worked in small hotworking teams to fashion unique shapes for the dining tables of their era!
Michael Biel
Summer 2003