Colleen the fire Angel


Trumpets sound there is a swish of wings and you can feel the power of the divine coming down to earth. It is a moment of spiritual peace and strength and you feel the connection to the generations who have gone before you seeking the miraculous and wondrous, yearning to experience and express that which is unseen, yet felt in the universe.

As a student of western art, as a person of German decent and Christian faith, angels have been a large part of my life and psyche. Across generations, cultures and religions angelic beings are the conduits of divine messages, mysteries and embody faith in a reality not seen. Colleen the Fire Angel is one of a series of free form fused angels I have been working on. My personal history is steeped in the western tradition of visualizing the angelic forms, which influences my designs. I like the slim upright forms of medieval and early renaissance depictions as well as those from the art deco period. I explore the traditional activities of angels: as heralds, singers, bringers of light. This angel received her name from a ten year old boy who came into my booth with great fascination. He like all the glass and touched it with respect and reverence and asked questions about how it was created with curiosity and intelligence. Most of all he loved the angel and told me I should call her, “Colleen the Fire Angel”. The art therapist in me could tell this young person had already seen some need for the miraculous and divine in his life. He came back a while later with a woman in tow and introduced his Aunt Colleen and showed her the angel and told her the angel was like her, strong, fiery who loved him and took care of him. I told him I was so glad he had given me the Angel’s name and introduced me to the person who inspired it. As he watched I wrote out the tag that declared her Colleen the Fire Angel. It is in moments like these that an artist feels that what she experienced in her act of creation was not in vain for somehow it has connected on a deep level with the life and experience of another.