Light shifting perspectives in glass
- Randi creates abstract glass artworks that speak of inner worlds
- Nature, as experienced through Vermont’s vibrant seasons, fuels her practice
- Her pieces are in the permanent collection of the White House
Randi Solin works with glass and colour to create vivid pieces with internal worlds to explore. Inspired by the distinctive seasonal palette of the Vermont countryside around her studio, her practice draws on Venetian techniques and the American Studio Glass movement, in particular the fluid, thick-bodied style of the 1970s. "That very thickness made me fall in love with the material," she says. "The thicker the glass, the more soul it has." Randi’s pieces gain expressiveness from the depth and glow created by layered structures developing from within. Her forms are shaped as much by molten glass behaviour as by her inner visions. "Even though I have been making since the 1980s, I still wish I had a magic wand to turn what I see in my head into reality,” she says.
INTERVIEW
The thickness of the glass walls is essential in my pieces. Thicker walls let light pass through to the inner structure, where optical effects and interior layers have been created by the heat. When I cut and polish the pieces cold, these internal aspects are revealed.
When laying frit, cane, powdered glass and precious metals directly into the molten mass, each element reacts differently under heat. It makes it incredibly difficult to keep anything symmetrical. It is a true battle every day.
For a long time, I did not want the viewer to realise the pieces were made from glass, so I made a lot of opaque pieces. I really wanted the material not to be the leading focus. But over the years I have fallen in love with clear glass. Now I want the viewer to look through it to find the colour behind it and to understand the piece from the inside out.
Because my love of art came before my love of glass, I approach the material the way an abstract expressionist approaches a canvas. I hope people see that I took the medium and did something original with it.
