Mary Shaffer

Art Brokerage: Mary Shaffer American Glass Artist: Mary Shaffer has always been fascinated with light and movement, which has found expression in the two being an integral part of her work. Her Hanging Series started from a fascination with windows. As a painter, Mary worked with window light. She liked the illusion the first canvasses had of being a reference to windows, when painters first abandoned fresco painting for easel painting. Mary says the glasswork in particular suggests evening window light. From inside a darkening room, the windows, still bright, seem to be suspended in mid-air through the light they hold. Mary alludes to the grid of window panes with the metal lattice pattern. Shaffer is well-known for her work incorporating found objects, such as old tools, with glass. "Using discarded hand-forged tools," she says, "pays tribute to activities and methods of working that are fast disappearing." The contrast between Shaffer's metal and glass intensifies the perception of both. Shaffer developed a process in the 70's in which plate glass is allowed to bend and shape itself as gravity, heat, or whatever it is contiguous to, pulls it. Called "mid-air" slumping, Shaffer sculpts the glass in mid-air allowing the forms to take shape. She says, "It's like playing with the wind. Holding glass is like holding light in your hands." The result is strong and elegant. Shaffer's distinguished career spans thirty years and she is recognized internationally as an important influence in the American Studio Glass Movement. Her work can be found in many public and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC. Her eighteen-piece Tool Wall is on permanent display at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. She has received numerous honors and awards for her work. She currently divides her time between New Mexico, and Texas. Mary Shaffer creates sculpture from slumped glass, bronze, found objects, stone, light, fire, fiber-optics, sound, and performance. Listings wanted by Art Brokerage.