LAURA MURDOCH,
"LAYERED LIGHT"
AN EXHIBITION OF
GLASS VESSELS &
PENDANT LIGHTS

Exhibit: July 31 - September 7, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 31, 6 - 8pm
Location: 1386 Cartwright St., Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

Layered Light is a luminous series of richly coloured and elegantly patterned blown glass vessels and pendant lights. Laura's work utilizes simple shapes as canvas on which to present intricate repeating patterns on, and/or encased in, the glass. One piece can have as many as 5 translucent layers of different patterns and colours superimposed on each other, ultimately exploring order within disorder. Each layer is a window through which the other interior layers are revealed.

This is accomplished using the graal process. The graal process is an intermediate step in the blowing of a vessel, in the form of a two-coloured bubble (an incomplete vessel), that is cooled to room temperature, allowing the artist to make an impression or design on the glass with colour and/or texture variation. The bubble is then heated again, often more glass and colour is gathered over top, and the blowing process is completed.

In Laura's case, she often uses this process many times over, building layer after layer of colour, texture and pattern in the same piece. Each layer can be painted, cut, carved, drilled, and/or incised. In addition, the outer surface is sometimes bathed in acid to produce a "beach glass" effect. Because there are so many processes involved, one piece can take years to evolve, and might have a hundred hours or more invested in it. The end result is worth waiting for, and culminates in the bringing together of many unrelated layers into a final harmonious, synchronized whole. You might be left asking "how did she do that?"

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