Picture: Bertil Vallien

Glass is unique in that viewers are often moved to ask, “How’d the artist do that?” The process itself is part of the art form. Viewers want to know if a piece was blown, kilned, or molded. They want to know how colors and textures and lighting effects were created. Says Hotel Murano Art Curator Tessa Papas, “Some artists don’t want their process known. Others are very conceptual, and glass is just the convenient means to get their ideas across.” Still, most artists are very open about how they accomplish their often stunning effects. Glassblowing, for instance, is almost a performance art in itself. Hotel Murano artist Bertil Vallien of Sweden summed it up beautifully in his artist’s statement: “A violent transformation does take place in the cooling oven. When the sculpture is pried out and removed from the cooler, the red-hot [piece] has turned to everlasting ice. The tale the sculpture tells is captured for eternity in the glass, and only internal fires can restore it to its original form.”

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