April Issue 2000
Smith Galleries on Hilton Head Island, SC, Features Glass Sculptures by Judith Konesni
Smith Galleries, on Hilton Head Island, SC,
celebrates it's twelfth anniversary with an exhibition of aquatic
glass sculpture by Judith Konesni. The exhibition, which will
be on view from Apr. 1 through Apr. 29, is also a celebration
of the artist's 20th year as a glass artist.
Konesni was born in 1959 and is the owner of Tidal Wave Glass
Studio in Michigan. She is a 1981 BFA graduate of the University
of Toledo and the joint fine arts program at the Toledo Museum
of Art. While studying painting and sculpture, she was introduced
to glass and received formal training from Tom McGlauchlin.
She invented an individual decorative style of repetitive cutting and fire polishing technique that makes her images in glass appear sensual, tactile and bursting with movement.
Today, Konesni's oceanic glass designs reflects encounters with anemone, jellyfish, coral reefs, fish, and shell creatures. She manipulates molten glass into aquatic forms that capture the essence of the deep sea experience. The contrast of working in "hot glass" and creating "cold deep sea imagery" is the ultimate creative illusion.
The fluid nature of molten glass along with Konesni's skills and ideas are translated into these creative, tactile, and sometimes whimsical works of art. Titles for her aquatic environments are borrowed from tropical coral reef systems from around the world.
Konesni is concerned about the environmental destruction of fragile reef ecosystems of the sea. Over development and excessive fishing and harvesting of reef fish and coral reefs are destroying these ecosystems that have taken many centuries to grow. Re-creating and expressing sea life with glass art is one of the many ways to preserve nature.
Smith Galleries is South Carolina's only NICHE Magazine TOP 100 Gallery of American Crafts. The exhibition may also be seen online at (http://www.smithgalleries.com) beginning on Apr. 1.
For further information check our SC Commercial
Gallery listings or call the gallery at 843-842-2280 or check
them out on the web.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.