This new piece is simply called Tulips in Spring. I made it yesterday to celebrate the good weather. Just like the tulips at my home, sometimes the petals drop on the table.

Here is a small photo from the Dragon that was made at Corning. It’s about 16 feet long.

CMOG has posted some photos of the event on their flickr page.Check it out to see the finished piece!

The setup:

There were 2 stages- one with the band, in the auditorium, and one with me- the hot glass stage. In between in the hallways were wine tastings, snacks and food. On both stages and in the hallways were video screens, showing a mix from 2 cameramen at the hot glass stage and some feeds from the auditorium.

I had two professional glassblowers to help me on stage (could have had more, the sky’s the limit with Corning- but I didn’t think we could fit anyone else on stage!)- Louis Olsen and DH McNabb, who were not only highly skilled and experienced, but were also flexible-minded enough to work on this crazy project, and in the end, I think they also had a lot of fun doing it!

Louis and I wore microphones, so we could provide running commentary while we made the artwork. Steve Gibbs, the mastermind behind this evening, also came on stage to emcee for a while.

We decided that because the stage was very narrow, it would be a good idea to do a long, skinny piece. I also wanted to exploit my assistants’ high skill level, so I decided to do something with bitwork and lots and LOTS of blown pieces with optic molds, so everyone would be constantly busy, and we could create a sort of “assembly line” for… something. DH came up with the idea of hanging the finished pieces along the back wall, and walking them through the audience as each one was done, a sort of procession.

The plan:

I went home after our first night’s practice and started sketching. I’d been meaning to make a dragon for a while, and this seemed like the team that could pull it off.  I felt this was the right time and environment as well-I kept having these indications-  as I was leaving Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, I had come across a duty-free display entirely in Chinese, selling luxury New Year items,  and I had taken pictures of it. It is unusual to have anything in Holland that isn’t in Dutch and English, and it seemed an interesting sign of the changing times, that there are so many Chinese visitors now. I even tried to sign up for a raffle of something, but the card was all in Chinese, and I realized I have a lot to learn…

Then when I got to Corning, some of the first lovely people I met were two 2 Chinese translators for the hot glass show. Corning has a huge number of visitors from everywhere, but enough Chinese visitors to merit 2 translators!  So it seemed to me that the Year of the Dragon was calling me.  The next day at the Rakow library, I did some image research, and sketched the plans for the team.  I was so pleased to find out that Chinese New Year started a few days after the performance,- January 23rd- and that this year was not just a dragon year, but a “water dragon” year- a very rare and special occurrence. How ideal, then, to create a lucky dragon, born precisely of fire and water!  It seemed like an auspicious omen to create one on the stage. I decided to use 8 pieces of paper, for another lucky number.

Over coffee, we strategized a series of components that the guys could make for me, in rapid succession, so that we could print the dragon from nose to tail in 2 hours. We redesigned the stage- moved the bench and marver, took away stuff that we wouldn’t need to gain a few extra inches. It was a tight space for 3 people and lots of glass!  They had to haul out extra blowpipes and punties because we we knew we’d use hundreds of pounds of glass by the end of the session. Here is the crazy sketch:

So many people are involved each month in putting the 2300 event together, Corning is a well-oiled machine, with a real heart: docents, volunteers, safety managers, the marketing staff, catering, security, A/V and tech folks, photographers, museum staff, library staff, all the people from the Finger Lakes wineries who brought wine for the tastings, the band, not to mention the crew that brought me over- Steve, Louise…and so many others helped make this a very memorable evening for me, and hopefully for the many guests as well.

And, in case you missed it above, CMOG has posted some photos of the event on their flickr page.Check it out to see the finished piece!

More press and photos to follow, as they emerge.

Photo credit Ann Welles, from Exhibit A Gallery

*2300 refers to the temperature of hot glass, in Fahrenheit.

Ann Welles and Amelia Harnas of Exhibit A hosted a “Noontime Talk with Anne Gant,” from 12:00 – 1:00 PM on Friday January 20th.  We opened portfolios and flat files, and discussed the work at the gallery. I brought two new pieces with me, and was able to “unveil” them during the talk.

Thanks to all who attended! It was a nice crowd, and I hope we can do it again next time I am in town.

2300°: Fire and Wine

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Free admission. Refreshments available.

If you are in upstate New York, stop by Corning. I’ll be blowing glass and burning paper, and there will be wine and music and all the wonderful things to see at the Corning Museum of Glass.

Glassmaking by Anne Gant
Anne Gant, is one of the few glass artists to work on paper. Watch as she uses hot glass to make prints and drawings in a fascinating combination of glassblowing and printing or drawing with glass. First, she sculpts hot glass into shapes and lines. While the glass is still scorching hot from the glory hole, she presses the glass forms into wet sheets of high quality rag paper. Instantly, the glass begins to burn and smoke the paper. In this dramatic process, the glass becomes cracked, scarred and destroyed and all that remains is its mark on the paper.

Music by The The Weber Brothers
There are bands for which rock and roll is a lifestyle, and then there are bands for which it is life. The Weber Brothers, who have shared the stage with icons like Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, Leon Russell, Derek Trucks and Kris Kristofferson, fuses stomping country rock with the brothers’ own love of pop music in all its splendor.

Free Finger Lakes Wine Tastings
Sip away the cold with tastings from over 20 Finger Lakes wineries.

Luminous 42h x 48 w

Afterglow 42h x 48w

Reconstruction 45 h x 30w

Photos from recent solo show in Anchorage, Alaska, and a review in the local paper. I showed one large wall pieces (9 panels) and 7 smaller pieces.

The show was paired with a show by my mother, Alice Gant, who is a fiber artist. It was an honor to have solo shows simultaneously, and great fun to show in adjacent galleries. We saw a lot of old friends while we were in Alaska, and also caught up with the art scene there- including admiring the gorgeous new Anchorage Museum building.

Check out the review here:
Two Generations

We also got some nice pre-show press in the Anchorage Daily news, with color photos of our artwork, and even an article about a bike route to all the openings on First Friday, including a stop at our shows.

In the gallery

Small Excavation

Welcome Home

A Cautionary Tale of Great Abundance

Spirit Chandelier

Unpacking the artwork with mom- the portfolios were sent from Amsterdam, Brooklyn and my gallery in Corning. Lots of coordination to get everything together.

The biggest one had its own wall- Midden and Moraine

The Carr-Gottstein Gallery- you can see the artwork inside

Photos from the opening- many people watched the video by Jata Haan with Pinaki’s music.
Opening photos by Becky Voris.

Northern Lights

Exhibit A represented artists at the Echo Art Fair this last weekend in Buffalo, NY. About 3,000 people visited the event.
(Joshua Sperling’s work on left, Tricia Wright on right.) I FedEx-ed this work from Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago
- it’s always nice to finally see it hanging and to know that it got there safely.

3 of the recent pyrographies were acquired, and the head librarian discusses them in this brief article:

A  shot of the studio- a great place to work, it’s so big!

Outside the studio it’s all green and quiet, a lovely peaceful place close to Amsterdam

Once the artwork is done at the studio, it takes some work to get it ready- first it is cleaned and glued, then photographed, cataloged, packed and shipped. I am working on one half of the Chandelier pieces here, just cleaning up the ash and smoke.

A preview of new work: This is one of 6 new pieces which will be shipped off to exhibition. This one is called “Welcome Home”.