slices of heaven
Émile Gallé, circa 1900
Inspiration loves to hide and work its subtle magic into the mundane, like a fairy tending to its invisible garden. Earlier this week I spilled my tiny paper cup of coffee all over my desk at work, and instantly I became startled and annoyed, until I paused to observe the shape of the splash.
Spreading outward from the center, the spill looked like an angel, wings open wide, and two lines of coffee rushed downward like little floating legs. It was so painterly and oddly magical. For a moment, it felt alive. I carefully dried up the puddle and watched the rest of the angel fade into the wood. I smiled.
For weeks and weeks, I have been quietly, continuously noticing the beauty of glass art and — cakes <3 — that have crossed my path. Glossy, sculptural, creamy, decorative, precious… these visual qualities feel present in my own art as well, only flattened and rendered on paper.
I feel a tiny angel whispering to me, study works of glass and cake art… and maybe even try your own hand at them. <3
Angels are subtle but repetitive in their gestures. They fly in to deliver important messages and disappear as soon as you receive them. Sometimes we aren’t paying attention, and we miss the message. When we don’t listen, or we don’t observe — we can’t absorb their guidance or feel their support.
I am receiving the download by writing, feeling, and sharing this writing with you… <3
Lila Steinkampf is a German dessert artist whose work has been mystifying me for weeks now. Most recently, she collaborated on a cake called Lilium —
“An intimate journey into the garden of remembrance. Exploring the process of emancipation by the representation of interactions between women and Nature in a living tradition.”
A cake is ephemeral, a sculpture that expires in time — while a piece of glass art can live through centuries, as long as it is handled with care. Both feel like angelic creations, humans channeling a divine energy to make precious offerings to others. They are pieces of beauty to be cherished and remembered, both holding memory and a sense of ancestry in their craft.
A recipe can be passed down and enjoyed over generations, and glass objects live long lives, being used over generations. Both hold a wisdom of those who came before us, and tell stories of the divine in connection with humans through art and nature.
I am realizing how my own style of painting channels this same energy —rearranging pieces of the natural world to connect spirit into a form people can absorb and experience sensorially.
We are all painting slices of our own kind of heaven — slices of reality imagined from the earthly and dream worlds. Art ultimately mystifies our senses, tricking our eyes and minds to wander toward essence — a truth beyond matter, intuition beyond reason.
Émile Gallé, circa 1900 — Art Nouveau glass works on view at Cleveland Museum of Art
ethereal lightness
I discovered the breathtaking glass art of Émile Gallé two summers ago, at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I kept remembering the photo of his work on my phone, and looking at it for a while. I then realized that just earlier this year, my boyfriend and I took a day trip to the Imagine Museum in St. Petersburg, a museum of contemporary glass art.
I was becoming quietly fixated on glass, without consciously realizing it. The angels were guiding me there.
glass memory
Rewinding back to 2015… seven whole years ago… I remembered Roni Horn’s enormous glass sculpture that I worked alongside at the Aspen Art Museum, when I was a museum guide.
Roni Horn’s glass sculptures weigh nearly 2,000 pounds, yet appear to float softly above the floor. They fill with light, like frosty prisms giving beams of light dimension and texture. The tops of these sculptures are wet and glossy, reading like ice sculptures before they are carved into, or giant ice cubes, or a glass kitty pool filled to the brim. They mystify the viewer and ask so many questions.
I do not know what to make of their sublime nature — other than to stare in awe, real awe.
Art does this to us, like the angel messages. It asks us to stop and open our heart to the present. It gives us an energetic channel — between art and human — to feel something new, let something go, or discover truth.
Precious totems of knowledge and beauty surround us always, if only we have open eyes and hearts to taste them as slices of heaven.
xx, jess
