“Had I not taken Jiri Harcuba’s class,” says Australia’s April Surgent, “I would not be engraving glass to the extent that I am today.” And the world would be a much smaller place. Surgent fuses layers of white glass over black, creating a medium that looks somewhat like plywood. And then she carves the white layer away to create a black-and-white image. The technique is called cameo carving, and essentially it’s the same process. Except for one thing: cameos are usually small enough to use in jewelry, whereas Surgent’s pieces are the size of small posters. Among her favorite scenes are the broad, open spaces of Eastern Washington. These natural vistas have remained essentially unchanged for centuries. In her pictures, they are often punctuated with electric turbine windmills or telephone lines, which intrude like sentinels or ciphers. Says the artist, “My work investigates the importance of the inherent link between person and place.” That her work resembles an antique photograph or tintype reinforces the notion that Surgent is likely ambivalent about the intrusions of technology into mankind’s relationship with the environment.

-Dale

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