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David Graeber: Preserving Nature for Eternity in a Paperweight

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Release Date: 04/24/2024

Joyce J. Scott: Repositioning Craft as a Forceful Stage for Social Commentary and Activism show art Joyce J. Scott: Repositioning Craft as a Forceful Stage for Social Commentary and Activism

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

For more than three decades, trailblazing artist and activist Joyce J. Scott has elevated the creative potential of beadwork as a relevant contemporary art form. Scott uses off-loom, hand-threaded glass beads to create striking figurative sculptures, wall hangings, and jewelry informed by her African American ancestry, the craft traditions of her family (including her mother, renowned quilter Elizabeth T. Scott), and traditional Native American techniques, such as the peyote stitch. Each object that Scott creates is a unique, vibrant, and challenging work of art developed with imagination,...

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Studio Glass Pioneer Joel Philip Myers show art Studio Glass Pioneer Joel Philip Myers

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

self-described loner, Joel Philip Myers developed his skills in relative isolation from the Studio Glass movement. With works inspired by a vast array of topics ranging from his deep love of the Danish countryside to Dr. Zharkov, the artist avoided elaborate sculpture in favor of substantial vessels that are simple yet powerful. States Myers: “In 1964, on the occasion of an exhibition titled Designed for Production: The Craftsman’s Approach, I wrote in an essay in Craft Horizons magazine: ‘My approach to glass, as it is to clay, is to allow the material an...

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Jen Blazina: Casting Lost Memories and Forgotten Voices in Glass show art Jen Blazina: Casting Lost Memories and Forgotten Voices in Glass

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Perceiving her role as a record keeper, artist Jen Blazina captures the essence of lost memories and forgotten voices. Through her work, she holds onto fragments of personal history, transforming common objects into poignant relics of the past. Her visual narratives express universal concepts of memory, inviting audiences to connect with the stories she preserves.  Blazina states: “Memory is embodied in everything around us: in our culture, beliefs, objects, and ourselves. Discarded objects and those passed down to me become personal keepsakes and icons of the past, rather than...

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A Confluence of Passion: Martin Gerdin’s Glass Gamefish show art A Confluence of Passion: Martin Gerdin’s Glass Gamefish

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Nothing short of inspirational, Martin Gerdin’s journey through crafting wild fish in hot glass is inextricably tangled with his evolution to mental health and sobriety. Beginning during the pandemic, the artist has hand-blown dozens of meticulously detailed trout, salmon, redfish, and other revered gamefish from his glassblowing studio, Gerdin Glass in Crawford, Colorado. The dangers, volatility, and physical labor of blowing glass are symbolic of the challenges he faced and conquered on his pathway to sober living.  For some, fly fishing is a pastime, something fun to pursue...

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Rita Shimelfarb:   Combining Traditional Stained Glass with Contemporary Painting and Forming Techniques show art Rita Shimelfarb: Combining Traditional Stained Glass with Contemporary Painting and Forming Techniques

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

The raw brilliance and color of glass are primary inspirations in Rita Shimelfarb’s work. The deeper she explores the technical side of working with glass, the more it leaves her in awe at the range of possibilities for something new and beautiful to emerge. Building upon the millennia-long tradition of stained glass art, Shimelfarb pushes her material beyond traditional imagery and conventional construction methods by utilizing both time-proven as well as innovative contemporary glass forming and painting techniques. By combining modern and traditional, play and purpose, she makes the...

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Flameworking Pioneer Sally Prasch show art Flameworking Pioneer Sally Prasch

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Combining technical skill with a strong aesthetic, flameworking pioneer Sally Prasch is known for her work that places other-worldly figures in glowing globes filled with rare gasses. She has also constructed portraits from broken shards of glass and is well known for her goblets made with coiled stems that allow them to bounce when handled. Her latest work incorporates cast bronze with glass. But perhaps Prasch’s greatest fulfillment has come from teaching. She has taught flameworking workshops at UrbanGlass, Brooklyn; the famous Niijima Glass School, Japan; Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood,...

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Oceans of Emotion: Kait Rhoads’ Glass Sculpture show art Oceans of Emotion: Kait Rhoads’ Glass Sculpture

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Childhood experiences of life on a sailboat in the Bahamas and Caribbean left a profound mark on Kait Rhoads. The experience of growing up on the water has provided great inspiration for her artwork. The artist’s Sea Stones series hints at its watery origins. Each sculpture is a small world in itself, an intimate object you can hold in your hand. A talisman, the work looks almost molecular, like plankton carapaces as observed under a microscope. Rhoads states: “My work is inspired by nature and informed by memory. And, three oceans—the Caribbean, the Indian and the...

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Contrasting Forces: Weston Lambert’s Stone and Glass Sculpture show art Contrasting Forces: Weston Lambert’s Stone and Glass Sculpture

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Weston Lambert transforms semi-precious stones and found rocks into profoundly beautiful, time-defying glass sculptures. By incorporating an original process for laminating the two materials and by cold-working the surfaces of the glass and rock, the artist is able to bring his skill to bear on these objects that seamlessly transform from stone to glass and back again. Lambert’s work is about dualities and the balancing of contrasting forces. He’s looking for the place where transparency/opacity, and ephemeral/eternal coexist, each taking part in creating equilibrium. This dynamic...

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Jeremy Sinkus’ Geologicalized Glass show art Jeremy Sinkus’ Geologicalized Glass

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Current work by Jeremy Sinkus includes his Contemporary Art Nodules, inspired by collecting and focusing on the top 10 attributes that the artist and viewers found intriguing about glass objects. Simultaneously ancient and from the future, his Nodules combine texture and form with transparent windows that allow the viewer to explore unknown inner worlds. A former mineral collector and digger, Sinkus put down his chisel and picked up a torch when he realized his fondness for minerals and natural history was all encompassed in glass.  Sinkus says: “Glass is geological....

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The Artistry and Craftsmanship of Dan Alexander show art The Artistry and Craftsmanship of Dan Alexander

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

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Early in his career, Paul Stankard used to trade paperweights for gasoline and car servicing with John Graeber. In 1989, through his uncle John, David Graeber wound up casually visiting Stankard’s studio and weeks later was invited to come and work with him. Young Graeber started learning about glass in the deep end of the pool. Thirty-five  years later, he continues to work with Stankard about a day a week. 

Having mastered numerous glassmaking techniques and having developed his own working style and visual aesthetic, in 2009 Graeber started his own art glass business. One thing he shares with his mentor Stankard is a deep appreciation for and interest in imagery from the natural world. His paperweight subjects include Chysanthemum, so life-like you want to reach out and pluck them from their crystal orb. Fall Harvest, including pumpkins and blueberries in floral arrangements that celebrate their season with color and vibrancy. And Fruits of Discovery that pays homage to the enchanting yellow lemon trees of Italy.

Graeber says: “My stories in glass have evolved over time. However, one fact, my love of nature, remains constant. Many of my creations celebrate the memory of a loved one or the joy of a special event. All capture nature’s elegance and remarkable diversity.”

In order to create paperweights that reflect nature precisely, Graeber studies his subject matter carefully. A major source of natural inspiration is the million-acre Pinelands National Reserve, which has served as a living laboratory. He is always trying to “find a new illusion,” a new way to express the transcendence he experiences in those environs. Despite his stunning and widely collected artworks, Graeber prefers to be regarded as a craftsman continuing the South Jersey glass tradition into the 21st century.

A life-long “Jerseyman,” Graeber honed his craft under the watchful eye of teachers, mentors, and friends including: the late George Vail, who introduced him to the world of architectural reconstruction and forensic sculpture; William “Bill” Marlin, Ed.D., a dedicated teacher and established painter; Stankard, the internationally acclaimed glass artist who encouraged him to strike out on his own; and the late Ed Poore, a renowned master cutter whose skill has enhanced several of Graeber’s paperweights. 

Graeber has created both a life and a living from the magic of glass. His intricate glass paperweights and impressive flameworking techniques are on display and can be accessed through the L H Selman website as well as Graeber’s own website. He is careful to always keep in mind how much more there is to know and that you always need to be learning something new to expand your horizons as an artist. He is restless and often makes no more than a few paperweights of a particular design before he needs to explore another direction. 

Two years ago, Graeber met filmmaker Dan Collins at an event, and the two decided a documentary film was needed focusing on the paperweights and artistic contributions of Stankard. Graeber took on the role of executive director and began fundraising for the project in earnest. Since January, Flower and Flame has thrilled hundreds of viewers at packed regional venues, including the Morris Museum, Perkins Center for the Arts and Salem Community College’s International Flameworking Conference. The next showing will be at the Paperweight Collectors Association convention May 15 – 18 at the Warwick Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. Plans for national distribution are ongoing and will be updated on the film’s official website as they develop. The film is an official selection of the G.A.S. Film Festival in Berlin, Germany (May 16, 2024), and the Jersey Shore Film Festival (June/July, 2024).

Considering art to be a vehicle for sharing and giving back, Graeber started a glass program five years ago at the nonprofit Perkins Center for the Crafts in Collingswood, New Jersey. There, he recently organized a showing of Flower and Flameto raise money for veterans – a group to whom the artist is particularly interested in teaching glass. Graeber has also given his time and energy to the nonprofit Project Fire, located on Chicago’s West Side, and helmed by glass artist Pearl Dick. 

He states: “I have a passion for the simple gifts of nature: the timeless beauty of a rose, the industriousness of a small bee, or the untamed wildness of a sunflower. Working in glass allows me to explore this passion, and under the tutelage of master glass artist, Paul Stankard, I refined my passion to the art of capturing nature – frozen for eternity in a paperweight.”

More about Flower and Flame

1. Film Reviews

Andrew Page of Urban Glass: REVIEW: An exquisitely crafted film examines Paul… | UrbanGlass

Richard Pope, The Independent Critic: https://theindependentcritic.com/paulstankard

2. Upcoming Screenings | 

  • Many not listed here are in planning stages. The updated list is at www.flowerandflamefilm.com/screenings
  • 4/18 Levoy Theatre, Millville, NJ
  • 5/16 Official Selection, GAS Film Festival, Berlin Germany
  • 5/18 PCA Convention, Warwick, RI
  • Late June (TBD) Official Selection, Jersey Shore Film Festival
  • 7/10 Common Ground on the Hill, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD

3. How can people host a screening?

Answers to screening inquiries and general questions can be found here at our FAQ: FAQ | Flower and Flame (flowerandflamefilm.com)