Calligraphic Glass: Making Marks with Glass

Abstract

Calligraphic glass is one of the newer developments in contemporary glass art. The long-standing tradition of calligraphy is a rich source of inspiration for the glass artist, glass being a relatively new material for spontaneous mark-making. The investigation of the calligraphic quality of artworks ultimately leads to a discussion of human body movement, because mark-making is fundamentally a kinetic exercise. Often, the artist’s psychological and physical state is more important than the resultant marks. Building upon my doctoral research, which introduced the basic idea and techniques of ‘calligraphic lampworking’, this paper develops the discussion mainly regarding how the artist’s body movement may be manifested as spatial traces made from glass lines.

Keywords

• glass
• lampwork
• calligraphy
• line
• movement