Jackie Beckman

Jackie Beckman from Mesa, Arizona has over two decades of experience working in glass. Inspired by the invigorating energy of a city. Beckman states, "It is beautiful chaos; it is everything-everywhere all at once. The perspective from different vantage points: down, looking up, up, and all of it out of context. I take a mind’s eye snapshot of a building, a bridge, a fountain, a park, a sculpture, a streetlight, a view from a window, then jumble them into one second of bright, visual commotion." 

Using bold colors and shapes, each piece of glass is individually and specifically placed. Her scenes are composed of hundreds of pieces of glass, some placed with tweezers. When her image matches the vision in her mind, she fuses it to a temperature of 1480 degrees, usually multiple times. In subsequent processes, she uses cold working techniques to get to the surface she wants to achieve. Grinding the face of the glass pops the image graphically to the surface. She then polishes it to a buttery, matte surface, and lastly it goes back to the kiln to form the final shape. 

The viewer is never meant to recognize a particular building, lake, landmark, bridge, sculpture, or park, but they sense the intoxicating chaos of how those things make the artist feel.