Christine Barney

My work celebrates color, light and time

May 2023
I have worked in glass for many years, with a deep interest in transparency. Glass is an actual physical object and also an idea, a material where light has a natural voice. Building a construct for color and light, I focus on solid glass sculptures made at the furnace with a variety of color techniques. After the concentrated worktime at the furnace, there is a reflexive time for contemplation and decisions, when the sculptures are generated thoughtfully, one step into the next. By cutting apart the dense glass blocks, the sculptures shimmer as the energy of the hot glass process and the light released from clear glass is revealed within the piece. The glass pieces develop over months and sometimes, years.

My work in fabric is a counterpoint to my work in glass. The fabric pieces are an immediate expression of color that reference my thoughts about glass, color and light. The paintings begin with color and pattern, then I bend and fold the cotton into a structure, the initial flatness becomes a movement of overlapping color. In both fabric and glass, I search for depth along with transparency, building layers that contain hidden color and light. The need to construct a shape derives from my innate calling as a sculptor. The sculpted fabric pieces shift from the picture plane to the sculpted form. My work in glass was recently awarded a 2023 Individual Artist Fellowship grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.