anne gant

Epergne 1 18w x 24h, Epergne 2 18w x 24h, The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune and detail, 120x 90, Archaeology 60 x 40--All pieces are on double layers of Rives BFK cotton rag paper, with concealed archival linen strips on the back side.

my friend anne gant and i went to grad school together at tyler and also shared a gallery for our thesis shows. anne is yet another artist who bridges that huge gap between drawing, printmaking and craft and her work is fabulously striking to look at. anne and i both share a fondness for burning things...! read on about her exciting process and visit her comprehensive site for more about anne and her work.

I use hot glass to make prints and drawings. Since 2001 I have been creating my own process, which is a combination of glassblowing and printing or drawing with glass. First, I sculpt hot glass into shapes and lines. Then, while the glass is still scorching hot from the glory hole, I press 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. All that remains is its mark on the paper.

The soul of glass is its heat.
These prints function as maps of that heat.
They reveal a secret aspect of the glass normally known only to the maker.

The casual viewer may not instantly spot that these prints are made from glass, but no other material would be able to create these high-temperature, organic burns. They have a richness, translucency and liquidity that is an echo of the original glass form. The resulting burnt impressions have a high level of detail as the burns pass through layers of paper and also create embossed areas. They range in color from areas of rich, dense blacks to smoky sepias and watery yellows. The burns are full of light- they have a mysterious photographic quality; in some areas they look as if they are backlit....