ARTISTS STATEMENT
Ruth Pellmann
Artists Statement
Renaissance Edge Glassworks
My art is a synthesis of my fascination with the natural world and the internal world of human emotion and personal development. Creative endeavor has been an intrinsic element in my life. My interest in aesthetics and decoration within history and daily life led me to a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Fine Arts. My experience of the transformative power of making art combined with my interest in human psychology led me to graduate studies in Art Psychotherapy. Using themes from nature, my art is an interpretation of my unique view of the world.
The focus on the healing power of art in my work as an art psychotherapist, at the beginning of my professional life, continues to inform my work. My life focus has transitioned from assisting others to express themselves through art, to experiencing the power of sharing my creative endeavours with the world. My art work is a conduit for my love of the natural environment and history and how people interact in these realms. Whether canoeing the French River, examining the rock paintings of the Missinnabi, viewing the medieval glass at Chartres, France, or training people in effective crisis intervention techniques, my experiences shape my art.
I love painted and fused kiln-fired glass. It matches my intuitive work style. Working with little or no preliminary sketching I use the glass, its colour and texture, to determine the design of each piece. I know the piece is working well when I become immersed in the process, absorbed and excited by hearing the glass speak to me. Firing glass is technically demanding; however, I enjoy the transformations that happen when glass is heated, even though the results can be unpredictable. Once the piece emerges from the kiln, the larger plan reveals itself. I decide whether the kiln-fired piece will stand alone, or become part of a larger work combined with other glass, joined by lead or foil. At this stage detailed and exact plans must be drawn for the precise cutting, fitting and joining of the glass. Careful selection of companion glass that will complement and complete the painted or fused piece is crucial. The glass art conceived in a flash of colour, light and texture at the intuitive stage, reaches itsdestiny as it is polished, framed and displayed.
I find never ending sources of inspiration in many places, far and near. As I travel a world images are gathered: from the swirling lines of iron work grills in Monaco; the graceful forms of roman ruins; the compositions of artistic masterworks in the world’s great museums, to the majestic peaks of the west coast mountains, the somnolent live oaks of Savannah and the open horizons of the North West Territories. Here at my home in Pefferlaw: walking in the woods; standing on the shores of nearby Lake Simcoe; or listening to the redwing blackbirds sing in the rushes of the river outside my studio window.
Glass is one of the only art media that directly uses nature, in the form of light, as an essential part of the artwork’s composition. As I hold a finished work up to the sunlight, I can see the light shining through the pines of the French River or glinting off the waves on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The process of creating art provides me with connection: to the generations of artists that have gone before me, to the art work of the children I have helped through art therapy and to the natural world around me. It is in the studio and in sharing these glass works with others that I find all the elements of my life come together.