Fused-glass artist Jennifer Blair showcases candid minimalist pieces of bright contrasting colours, linear clean lines, with a touch of mysterious organic chaos - reflected light filled framed tiles, home d茅cor, jewelry and belt buckles.
Blair's vibrant creative spirit comes from multiple sources such as local nature, everyday surroundings, natural light or sometimes a simple conversation with a friend or a drive through the city.
A born creator, Blair studied art as a major at a high school for the performing arts. The self-taught glass artist admits that her hot-fused work has evolved mostly through trial and error and that when she first started experimenting with glass, her pieces were straightforward, linear and often symmetrical. She says, "The more I work with this medium, the more I learn to let go of the rules and simply embrace the unpredictability of glass and let myself go with the flow of what might happen instead of trying to control such a fluid medium."
Blair has recently found a love for chemical reactions that occur between glass and metals such as copper and silver, creating fascinating shifts in colour and texture.
"It's always exciting to open the kiln only to discover exactly how something has reacted and turned out. The coastal mountains have had a huge impact on my creative direction as well as the photographs I have taken of our beautiful landscape here in Squamish," she says and looks forward to eventually creating larger-scale glass pieces for the home that are beautiful as well as functional.
Blair begins her creative process by intuitively surrounding herself with visual inspirations from thrift stores, photographs, nature and amazing views of the Tantalus Range from her home studio, in preparation to arrange and design jewelry pieces from scratch. Her other passions are a love for nature, hiking and spending a lot of time in the kitchen cooking colourful, improvised meals for friends and family.
To see more of Jennifer Blair's work, visit www.urbanfusions.ca
On the walls, I present my own artworks, an extension on my being, a lifelong series of experiments a visual experience that is sometimes hot and sometimes cold in mood, emotion and subject matter! In this exhibit I am showing paintings on canvas and paper in all three traditional mediums, posing the challenge of working in such vastly distinctive methods, all at the same time (slow drying oils, transparent fluid watercolours and my favoured expression of acrylic polymer emulsion) each with their own unique characteristics.
My compositions are derived from vastness and mystery of nature, dynamic renditions - scenes that flourish in vivid contrasting colour and multiple perspective spanning our hot and cold seasons!
I live, play, and work in our fantastic community, cultivating an artful life magnetized by my surroundings.
For more information, please visit www.tobyjaxon.com
Blair's "Glass, Metal and Nature" and my own "Hot 'n' Cold" will be on display at the Library Foyer Gallery from March 5 to April 1. An artists' reception is planned on Tuesday (March 5) from 6 to 8 p.m. at the gallery.
Toby Jaxon is curator of the Library Foyer Gallery. She can be reached at [email protected]
