Carmen Spera
Although many describe me as a glass artist, it is more accurate to say I am an artist who works with glass.
I started as a painter in the late 1970's, was a pioneer of the vanguard art furniture movement of the 1980's, and eventually stumbled into the glass world by doing reverse-painting on glass after a trip to Haiti in 1981.
I've experimented with painting, casting metals and carving wood, but I'm particularly drawn to doing unconventional work with glass.
I currently have a studio within a glass-slumping factory in Red Hook, Brooklyn and take advantage of the industrial techniques I'm exposed to there to create art objects infused with sociopolitical commentary that I find interesting and relevant. I've taken the iconic images of assault weapons that typically inspire reactions of fear and discomfort and rendered them fragile by creating them from glass. I've also branded them with high fashion design emblems. These pieces join themes of violence and aggression with luxury and class, and are designed to evoke dialogue on power, the global market and arms trade.
I am also reclaiming images that have recently been used by our government and media to spread fear and distrust, and challenging the viewer to perceive them within a larger, more nuanced context. Thorns involves a more classical use of glass, drawing on its magnifying and reflecting qualities through the use of curvature, layering and mirror. This piece reveals itself slowly and incorporates the viewer's image into a prism of beauty and pain.
The essence of my work is to find the sacred in everything.
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