Custom Art Glass by Mary Hunt

Mary Hunt of Platte, SD, was the featured artist at the Museum from August 1 through September 30, 2008. Hunt relocated her stained glass studio, “Emerald Artworks and Glass” from Virginia to South Dakota several years ago, bringing years of experience and a thriving business from the East.

Beginning as a portrait and landscape painter, her passion for design progressed into glass work. By studying the artisans of old, Mary mastered their techniques for vitreous staining and enameling glass. Her formal training includes work at Thomas Nelson College, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the Corning Museum for Glass in addition to workshops with leading glass artists from around the country.

Her techniques include: “Staining and Enameling” which is known as the “old master’s style” of glass painting used to dramatically enhance figures, faces or scenes for depth and color. “Blasting and Etching” are the means by which lettering and scenes can be drawn in white texture creating privacy while still allowing diffused light into the room. “Decorative Soldering” involves using the solder line as a sculpting tool to enhance the setting of the stained glass. “Fused and Slumped” glass is the process of “melting and shaping” glass in the kiln to create bowls, platters, and vessels of all kinds. “Mosaic” is the process by which small pieces of glass are reassembled and joined together to form an artwork.

Mary is also a teacher of workshops and classes in glass and is constantly welcoming new students interested in the age old process. In her studio, she teaches a broad range of techniques and projects, designed to meet age and interest levels and blend around and individual or group’s busy schedule. To see more about this process and find out more about her work, visit: www.maryshunt.blogspot.com.

Mary’s chose large and brilliantly colored window panels, bowls, plates and vessels of a multitude of color combinations and small etched boxes for jewelry for her Aberdeen exhibit. Several large platters depict stories such as the strength of women setting the prairie and the state’s waterways leading to Pierre and opening the prairie.

A number of the pieces in this exhibit have a collage theme, whether in glass or paint and found objects, including the dramatic “Dragonfly River” using 3-D wire sculpture and glass beads incorporated into the stained glass.

For information on past exhibits in the Dacotah Gallery, please click here.