Katie Chase

"Self-Silhouette"

18" by 14"

Materials & Process: Two layers of Bullseye clear 3mm; Paradise Paints. Technique: Paradise paints applied through a hand-cut stencil of contact-paper. Fired. Suspended over an impression of a fame pressed into sifted plaster. Fired.

Content / Intent Statement: I was overwhelmed early in the process of making this piece, too many ideas. So I paired it down to the bare minimum: plain glass and a black ‘splotch.’ Even with only two elements, it looks just like me, albeit very old-fashioned-looking. In fact, it often startles me when I catch it out of the corner of my eye.
I like that it is made of negative (reverse) components: both the shadow image and the “fame” (since the raised portion is on the back side of the portrait), and that bending or blocking of light does all the work in this piece.
I have to give special thanks to the Glen Echo Art Glass Consortium in Maryland, (http://www.glenechopark.org/classes.htm#glass), members of which taught me the plaster technique and walked me through firing.

Detail
Detail