Randi Solin Works

Artist's Statement

My work is rooted in the process of creating.  I’m in love with the act of blowing glass, and with its optical properties.

I incorporate techniques found in both classic Venetian glassblowing and the American Art Glass movement. However, I approach my work two-dimensionally, like a painter to a canvas or a weaver using thread to create an intricate tapestry.  My glass pieces are compositions, and, atypical to glass blowing in general, they have a “front”.  Generally my forms have an Asian influenced simplicity, which allows for my complex and painstaking coloration process to unfold.  I build layer upon layer of color using glass in all particle sizes-powder, cane, frit, and rod-like a painter’s palette, to create original homogeneous coloration and truly one-of-a-kind work.

My optics serve as the window into my coloration process – into the “soul” of a piece – allowing the viewer to peer into its life, like the rings of a tree.  All of my pieces are intellectually created on that notion; that with each finished work, a history is revealed.  My layering and coloration process is all about showing that the piece was made over time.  I accentuate each individual layer, which for me is a tremendously important component to my work.  My optics – the cut and polish, the juxtaposition of this organic form with this stark hard edge - is unique to my work and a signature of sorts.  My work requires the viewer to interact with the piece, to hold it, pick it up, to look into its interior life, to feel its incredible weight and mass, and to engage with its optics and its coloration.