54 Perspectives: Advice to Young Artists from Working Artists

A preview of Stephanie Syjuco's 54 Perspectives booklet, featuring a bright pink cover, and a preview of the interior

Stephanie Syjuco, Artist and Educator at UC-Berkeley, made a small advice booklet for her undergraduate art students to prepare them for the world beyond school. The free, downloadable booklet contains 54 pieces of advice from various artists, curators, and creatives who responded to her prompt for advice and words of wisdom.

LINK TO RESOURCE (.PDF)

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

Art Law: Copyright for Glass and Neon Artists

An overview of visual art copyright, tailored towards glass and neon artists. This presentation and resource list includes information on how to register a copyright, ideas for how to protect your work online, and what to do if your work has been infringed upon. All information was gathered from and confirmed by a copyright attorney.

A video presentation was paired with this slide deck during a She Bends presentation at UrbanGlass in May 2021.

Resources

Lawyers for the Arts by State
https://law-arts.org/national-vla-directory

Artist Guide to Copyrights by The Creative Independent
https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/an-artists-guide-to-copyrights/

Copyright Registration
https://www.copyright.gov/registration/

DMCA
https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/how-to-send-dmca-takedown-notice/

Cases

Satava vs. Lowry
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1169793.html

McGucken v. Newsweek, LLC,
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv09617/524753/35/

LINK TO RESOURCE (.PDF)

Resource submitted by Meryl Pataky of She Bends

Pricing Structure Worksheet

An easy-to-use spreadsheet for artists and designers producing sellable objects, created by artist and maker Heather Kraft. This worksheet provides a breakdown of cost of labor, fees, materials, markup, retail, wholesale, and asking price.

“This worksheet is a truth-teller, so it can be difficult to face. Work is expensive to make. Many artists and designers undervalue their work, according to what the market will pay for. Based on your results, you might decide the work isn’t worth the limited revenue stream. Be honest with yourself — and be kind to yourself.”

To use, visit the resource link below and make a copy or download the Google Sheets document.

LINK TO RESOURCE (GOOGLE SHEETS)

Resource submitted by Emily Leach

The Art of Plasma by Wayne Strattman

Newly published in 2022, The Art of Plasma by Wayne Strattman is the first book dedicated to the medium of plasma sculpture. An invaluable resource to plasma artists of all skill levels, and an illuminating read for anyone interested in the intersection of art and science and the past, present and future development of plasma art.

“Glass, gas and electricity combine to create unique possibilities for artists. Historical techniques are now made modern in this hands-on text, revealing ways to fuse art with science to create revolutionary forms of light art. The history, theory and practice of the plasma artist are all covered to give the practitioner both context and practical information to work within this dynamic medium.”

Wayne Strattman, plasma artist, engineer, designer and author, operates Strattman Design, the leading maker of plasma displays for museums, trade shows and movie companies worldwide. Strattman holds a PhD in the Neon Arts for his research, writings and long advocacy for plasma and neon as sculptural media. Strattman previously edited the best-selling 4th edition of Neon Techniques: Handbook of Neon Sign and Cold Cathode Lighting.

Cover of "The Art of Plasma" by Wayne Strattman. The cover features an organic tree plasma form with a lower blue tendrils, and a brighter, sharper neon branches at the top.

LINK TO RESOURCE (SHOPIFY)

Resource submitted by Cary Rapaport

students use invasive species of mussels to create beautiful blue glass | designboom

A group of color and material design students from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, has taken two invasive species of mussels and transformed them into a useful resource. The design team – Emily Marquette, Mahsa Banadaki and Wei Huang – proposes using zebra and quagga mussels, which are invasive to the USA’s Great Lakes ecosystem, as a source of calcium carbonate and colorant in the creation of region specific soda lime glass. The project seeks to transform these species from an ecological threat to an over-abundant regional resource that can be harvested and used for artisanal and industrial glass and ceramic applications.

Photos of crumbled zebra mussel shards next to a pile of a blue crumbed glass powder on the right.

Project Name: Zebra Glass
Design Team: Emily Marquette, Mahsa Banadaki, Wei Huang
Instructor: Matthew Strong

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

how is this glass?: Post Glass Artists/Glass Guerrillas

A blog founded by GEEX Talks 2021-22 speaker Anjali Srinivasan, and Yuka Otani, exploring and establishing a new conceptual space in glass, between 2008–2011.

“yuka + anjali is a curatorial team interested in the latent connections between glass and alternate / new media. Since 2008, we have been working towards exhibition and publication of guerilla interventions in glass practice, and the consequent re-definitions.”

Screenshot of the pastel-orange, how is this glass? website, the article features an image of Anjali Srinivasan holding a mirrored glass orb in front of her face.

The following article from how is this glass? establishes the notion of a post-glass artist, how they make sense of their practice, and relate to the world.

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Ben Orozco

Exhale with Vigor: Artist Talk with Karen Donnellan and Suzanne Peck

On Wednesday, March 2, 2022, the Smithsonian American Art Museum hosted a virtual conversation with Karen Donnellan and Suzanne Peck, featured artists in “New Glass Now,” on view at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery from October 22, 2021, to March 6, 2022. This program looked at how the artists use humor and a slightly subversive approach to rewrite the language of glass art. Their poster series “Exhale with Vigor” rejects the outdated slang used in hot glass studios and replaces chauvinistic terms with technical, fun, and feminist phrases. By examining how language, gender, and sexuality play a role in the contemporary glass field, Donnellan and Peck are working to create a more inclusive and representative hot shop.

Mary Savig, the Lloyd Herman Curator of Craft at SAAM, joined the artists for this engaging conversation on the language of contemporary glass making.

Opening title for the Artist Talk titled Exhale With Vigor: Artist Talk with Karen Donnellan and Suzanne Peck. There are two portraits of each speaker standing in a hot shop in with their respective tools (pipes, ladles, etc.)

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Helen Lee

Intro to Glass Art Demonstration Zines!

“These are a collection of zines based on the demonstrations and visiting artists presentations during Art 3003 AU2021 at The Ohio State University, taught by Brianna Gluszak. Each student was assigned a demo or presentation to take notes during, then re-form their notes into a zine to be shared with the class. This assignment not only produced an interesting collection of written (drawn) glass resources, it also neutralized the need within the classroom for a note taker.”

GIF rotating between editions of Intro to Glass Art Demonstration Zines, made by the students of OSU.

First Day in Hot Shop – Celeste Carpenter
Bit Structure Demo – Victoria Taylor
Press Molds with Richard Harned – Helene Roussi
Stained Glass with Richard Harned- Sydney Mitchell
Collaborative demo between Andrew Newbold and Brianna Gluszak – Emma Morgan
Intro to Cold Shop – Henry Mayeux
Collaborative demo between Jon Capps and Molly Burke – Rebecca Irmen
Intro to Imagery on Glass – Mia Kordowski
Imagery on Glass (powder printing) – Madison Gladman
Visiting Artist Kim Harty – Gianni Giarrano
Visiting Artist Ben Wright – Kaitlyn Smith

LINK TO RESOURCE

Resource submitted by Brianna Gluszak