Sculptural Recycled and Cast/Fused Glass Art by Cindy Ann Coldiron

American Rock /Kiln-cast recycled glass/found rock

The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky; gift of the artist, Copyright 2008.

Artist Statement

I work with recycled glass because I feel that I am creating a balance in the environment. I am taking something out of the environment, a discarded material (a negative) and returning it back to the environment as a positive and a sense of balance is achieved.

I have been always been fascinated by glass and ceramics since I was a child and observed my grandmother collecting interesting but affordable glass and ceramics. As I child, I loved entering the weekly drawing and coloring contests in the comics newspaper feature called "Cappy Dick." The winners names would be published in the feature and I still have a leather bookmark and set of bouncy balls that I won.

My professional art career began in 1999 after winning the Grand Champion Adult awards in crafts (glass entry) and ceramics at the Arlington County Fair juried art competitions. Since I am a life long gardener, my work typically focuses on nature inspired or intangible concepts such as "Eternity" and "Infinity."

For example, in my "Glass Flower Reborn" series", I envisioned what a flower would look like that suddenly sprung up from bits of discarded glass. In my sculpture entitled "Infinity", a never ending sea of circles seem to pop up and glide along the sculpture. In "Eternity", the small circular forms become more amorphous in shape as they seem to move along an incline and drop off the edge into the unknown.

Creating contemporary kiln-cast glass sculpture from recycled glass is challenging since it is unforgiving like rock and you need to have it flow into a specific design. Glass for consumer use is made to stiffen up and take final shape quickly in the manufacturing process so that explains why it is so difficult with which to work. A lot of glass bottles and sheet glass also are not compatible kiln wise with each other so a lot of pretesting must be done.

I enjoy the idea of being involved in an art medium where most glass artists still say "don't waste your time with recycled glass, it is a pain, so unpredictable", etc. I take that as a personal challenge to continue to explore and push the unusual sculptural properties and message of this material. Incalculable unknowns exist with each piece of recycled glass and I have had to invent new techniques and processes based on many hours of experimentation in order to work with this material and bring my vision into final form.

I often use a controlled divitrification process to bring a quartz or stone like look to my sculpture and I believe this represents a new type of glass. Divitrification has typically been viewed as a negative effect in fusible art glass but I believe it is an important tool in expanding the limited perception of what glass "should look like."


Artist Biography

Cindy is a professional artist who creates sculptures using kiln-cast recycled glass. She has an extensive resume which includes more than 80 juried shows and exhibitions, an artist grant and awards. Her recycled glass sculpture entitled "American Rock" is in the collection of the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky. She is currently focused on privately commissioned art works.

Infinity

Kiln cast recycled glass. Copyright 2009.

Inner Core

Kiln cast recycled glass and brick and rock. Copyright 2010

Eternity

Kiln-cast recycled glass Copyright 2010

Glass Flower Reborn (Clear Series #1)

Copyright 2009 Kiln-cast recycled glass Photo by Anything Photographic