Glass, Stone and Geohistory
The stained glass used is generally iridescent, a natural phenomenon of certain materials in which light waves interfere and combine with one another. The practical result is that the colors shift depending on how natural light hits the surface of the material and change with the viewing position and movement of the light source. In addition, pieces use bits of mirrored glass, reflecting light, to represent stars. Some gemstones play with light. Thus, the always changing pieces come to life. These luminance features make the pieces a beautiful night light in an infant nursery, child’s room or other (adult) space.
Pieces contain semi-precious gemstones such as Garnet, Carnelian, Quartz and Labradorite. The latter is used on account of its beautiful translucent and refractive Schiller effect when stuck by light. Upon request, precious gemstones including uncut rubies, emeralds and sapphires can be added to a work. To achieve a color palette evocative of sand painting areas of the “canvas” some pieces use ground stained glass and gemstones as well as stone dust ground from various rock found in the Berkshires.
Other rocks are featured in works both due to their age and unique providence. These include “Savoy” and “Dry Hill” gneiss, and Goshen and Ashfield schist collected by the artist and then hand-crushed using a mortar and pestle. Both crushed rock and stone sand/dust are used in the works. Savoy Gneiss is about a billion years in age and thus is among the older rock found the North American continent. Dry Hill Gneiss 600 million years old and was introduced into Western Massachusetts when the ancient North American continent, Laurentia, collided with another continental block, Gondwana, forming the supercontinent of Pangaea. Some galaxies/nebulae featured in the work are younger than these stones.
