Artists selected for the 2009 BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass are:

Artist Statement
When I discovered glass, I was drawn to its transparency and vibrant colors. Through time and exposure to other glass artist’s manner of working I came to see the vast potential of glass as a canvas. My work is inspired by a reverence for nature coupled with my prior painting experience. To render natural imagery such as feathers, boughs, seaweed, and cherry blossoms, I utilize traditional Italian patterning techniques as well as cane drawing and the judicious use of colored powders.  The synthesis that results from working on a number of different ‘series’ of work simultaneously helps me to keep my work dynamic and ever changing. My childhood was divided between rural Virginia and a sailboat in the Bahamas and Caribbean. Growing up on the water surrounded by a limitless blue sphere of sky and water as well as assisting my mother in her diving business has had a deep influence on my artwork. Currently my interest is shifting, moving up through the water, lingering on the horizon to rest in the blue sky above.

Soft Sculptures:  in this series, I use hollow glass murrine to describe the boundary of sculptural forms. The hexagonal shapes of the murrine interlock seamlessly; their compartments evoke the empty wax storage containers manufactured by bees and the cellular structure of coral colonies. Combinations of opaque and transparent color alternately highlight the architecture of the form as a whole and the perforated topography of the surface.

Closed Forms:  I can indulge myself in specific investigations of layered complexity on simple squared or rectangular blown forms. The forms are not traditional ‘glass’ forms, but are more reminiscent of Asian ceramics. Yet the depth of the layering of the glass marks them as being uniquely of that medium. Here also can be seen my interest in the layering of texture, dyes and embroidery of Japanese textile.

My family is from Virginia. I was born and raised there until I was six when my father, who loved to sail, moved my brother, mother and myself onto a sailboat. We traveled around the Bahamas and Virgin Islands for about six years.  On the boat, as the youngest, it was my duty to tie decorative knot work around the ship for safety reasons.  This has influenced my construction methods.  My choice of glass as my sculptural medium has a relationship to its ability to mimic the quality of color and light that surrounded me as a child, in the sky above and in the water below.  I imitate the manner of pattern and growth in underwater flora and fauna in my usage of building components, the multiples acting simultaneously as structure and texture.

After high school in Virginia and acquiring an Atrium Baccalaureate in Creative Arts at a liberal arts college in Florida, I transferred to Rhode Island School of Design. I had concentrated on painting for six years of my education before experiencing glass.  There I discovered glass and graduated with a degree in it in 1993. Attracted to the transparency and plasticity of the material, I found my greatest challenge in the process of controlling molten glass.  I was fortunate to have as my first teacher Michael Scheiner, an incredible sculptor and extremely versatile glassblower. I worked with him for four years, while I was attending school and afterwards.  Through that close contact with Scheiner I have acquired traits in art making that reflect his influence.  I revere and practice Italian glass blowing skills. I observe the way in which artists make their work and then adapt this knowledge to my own ends in my sculptural work and technical glassblowing

In some of my art I use traditional women’s work methods such as sewing or weaving to bring together multiple parts to form a whole.  The work implies strength and solidity although I use transparent and/or fragile materials structured in a non-masculine fashion.  My work echoes the development of my strength through learning to adapt to make a living working within a male dominated field. It reflects how I strive to be powerful and the different strength women have from men. Communication is also a compelling subject matter for me. In dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder since I was a child my methods of communication and self-perception were rooted in early survival techniques or patterns.  In my art I strive to understand my old ways of perception and intrapersonal communication and the struggle to transform them. The imagery that I use to express myself with is rooted in a deep reverence for the natural world.  More of late I am drawn to the contemplative subject of sky, horizon and sea.

When I finished my undergraduate degree, I developed a pattern in my life I was to follow for the next seven years.  Living in Seattle, WA, I worked for glass artists in their hot shops as an assistant, taught classes and workshops, and at the same time I made and exhibited my own work.   I created a mixture of sculpture, art glass and a limited amount of utilitarian vessels.  Whenever it was possible to get a residency, I could afford the time and cost to make installation work.  I went to graduate school at Alfred University in the fall of 1999 to change my role as an artist.  I wished to become independent from working for others and further develop my teaching skills.  In 2001 I received a Fulbright Grant to study sculpture in Venice, Italy.  I spent a year at the school of glass Abate Zanetti on Murano, working under the artistic director, Rosa Barovier Mentasti, the foremost historian of Muranese glass.
I returned to Seattle, WA in the fall of 2002, where I have resided until now, a self employed artist. The last seven years have taught me a lot about the necessary balance that I need to maintain between developing and producing work, teaching and running my own business.  I hope to be able to continue pushing my work to new levels; as the pursuit of that type of beauty seems to fuel my heart and to aid in its continuance to unfold.

Biography
Kait received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1993 and her MFA from Alfred University in 2001. Kait has been awarded scholarships from Pilchuck Glass School, emerging and professional artist residencies at Pilchuck School of Glass and Pratt Fine Arts Center, two fellowships at the Creative Glass Center of America in Milleville, New Jersey and a Fulbright grant to study sculpture in Murano, Venice. She creates sculpture and vessels made with traditional Italian techniques. Her collections include Seattle Art Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Northwest Museum of Art and Corning Museum of Glass.

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