EMPIRE OF ICE - Blown Glass & Metal Sculpture
EMPIRE OF ICE is a commanding fine art blown glass and metal sculpture that contemplates how civilizations are successively built upon the footprint of earlier cultures, stone on stone, layer upon layer.
Textural and faceted blown glass components are contained like archeological findings, compressed between each layer of brushed aluminum.
The lowest is somewhat crude with refinements to each as they build to the pinnacle.
A sleek brushed aluminum and stainless steel structure references curtain wall construction.
The metal structure frames the glass components and allows light to bounce through the array.
Dimensions: 32 x 36 x 5 inches (base dimensions: 2 x 34 x 8 inches)
Shipping within continental United States is included.
MICHAEL MIKULA - Glass Artist
For more than two decades Michael has explored a process using multi-part graphite molds as a tool for introducing imagery into blown glass. He calls the resulting body of artwork, which highlights the visual effects of positive and negative form, “Architechtonic Blown Glass”.
Michael composes graphite molds from a large and growing library of interchangeable hand cut components, and no two mold compositions are ever alike. He starts each blown form by capping his blow pipe with colored glass. Michael then gathers successively thicker layers of molten clear glass from the furnace until he has enough to fill the mold. Standing above the mold, Michael drops the glass, still attached to the blow pipe, into the mold and puffs more air through the blow pipe into the molten glass. He then quickly removes the hardening glass form from the pipe, placing it into the annealing oven for a timed cooling process. Once cooled, the resulting deeply dimensional blown forms are cut open, faceted and polished. The individual glass art elements are thoughtfully recomposed within an integral metal armature of anodized aluminum and stainless steel.
"Think of a Louise Nevelson sculpture to imagine what a mold looks like as molten glass fills the form - taking it's shape in reverse. My use of color is purposefully understated to focus attention on form and how the imagery and light is captured and reflected through the glass. My goal is that each piece be a well designed and crafted object with integrity and lasting value".