Facts and Passions:
The Linda Interview
How many awards have you won?
13 awards, starting with a National Gallery 1st Prize when I was sixteen. The remaining awards were picked up during my first career as a Creative Director.
I studied Fine Art, then Graphic design, and finally Computer Graphics at University.
How many glass art works have you sold?
11 large works and around 100 smaller works to customers in USA and Europe. And a few in the UK.
Why did you choose glass and not say painting or sculpture?
Just look at the colours. They’re so brilliant. Nothing resounds with colour like art glass. Everything else feels too weak or tame or dull, or at least it does to me.
I prefer to see a big piece of well-lit brilliant glass in a cathedral than the Mona Lisa because it has so much more impact - or at least on me :)
What art style do you represent?
The Hard Edge art glass style.
It was a glass artist called Margaret Heenan in Perth, Western Australia who first inspired me. She is the true originator of the Hard Edge art glass style, not me. Margaret’s now retired. I’m carrying the torch for her, and for myself I guess.
How many awards and exhibitions have you been involved with?
None, and none. I’ve chosen not to exhibit in public galleries
I’ve attracted many followers on social media instead.
It’s the colours and shapes people see that do it, not me. People love to watch the work in progress and not just be presented with the end result. It’s a new form of reality TV I guess.
Social media is a new approach to creating and selling high-end art that breaks the age-old cycle of galleries, exhibitions and public events that I don’t enjoy, where I have to pretend to be a person I’m not. It feels frightening. I’m a private person.
What’s the number one experience you want your audience to feel when looking at your work?
Joy. Wonder. Desire to own it. I never cease to marvel at the interplay of colour and light that glass art shines with. It brings happiness to my heart, makes me feel good.
I always try to be a happy person, and I want this to come out in all the work I do. I never do miserable or dark kind of works. Too much art is dull, even when it’s fine work.
When I see bright finished glassworks it does something good for me inside. I feel gloriously uplifted, and hopefully my audience will too.
My most popular reels on Instagram are where I'm opening the kiln for the first time to see a piece of fused glass. I love this kiln moment. The comments I get are often as much about my smile as the artwork :)
"Opening the kiln" videos from Instagram
Where do you get your ideas from?
I'm a very visual person. I see the colours and geometry in everything I look at, everywhere I go - in architecture, plants, signs, interiors, skylines, rooftops, bridges, reflections, a pile of paper on my desk - everything.
So from seeing Porticos in Bologna, I created arched bowls.
After visiting glasshouses across Europe, I designed "Orangerie".
I take hundreds of photographs, trying to record as much as I can.
And these photos become my inspiration - reference material for future projects.
A visit to Manchester Art Gallery inspired me to create "Stairs" ... I hadn't gone to the gallery to look at the staircase, but it had a massive effect on me :)
"Stairs" glass art in production - you can see the central spiral staircase developing in pieces of blue art glass.
Your work is complex. How many pieces of cut glass go into a large work?
170 at the latest count. The pieces are all different, all with different colours, transparencies and degrees of brilliance. I have a working palette of about 80 colours, and I’ll likely use up to 50 in any one piece.
I see my works getting more and more involved, with more and more pieces, and I love it. There’s no limit!
It must be challenging to maintain such precision and control in your glasswork. How do you do it?
Never accept second best. Do it again until it’s right, like for example, a poor cut that doesn’t quite fit, or replacing a piece where the colour isn’t quite perfect. I know when something is wrong, and I can't tolerate it!
So I’m painstaking beyond belief. But this doesn’t drive me crazy. It makes me feel satisfied, content that it's right.
Can you explain the techniques you use to achieve the sharp lines and geometric precision in your glasswork
Once I saw Margaret Heenan’s Hard Edge work I quickly got the idea and worked it out for myself. It’s all been self-developed since then. I’m lucky to naturally have the glass working skills and dexterity necessary to create the images I see in my head and all the vivid colour feelings that go with it.
I’ve been cutting glass for a long time - for many years I did leaded glass and copper foil stained glass work. But it was always full of those dark lines of solder, like a church window.
My Hard Edge fused glass style keeps the lines and the hard edges without all the solder lines getting in the way. Stained glass without the lines!
Fused glass without the fuzzy look. That’s me :)
Also - I don’t paint on the glass, or layer it or change it's colour in any way. I just accurately cut the different pieces of coloured art glass to produce whatever details are needed.
How do you ensure the quality and durability of your art, especially for collectors who invest in high-value pieces?
Methodology. Simple. The glass itself is long lasting. Correctly produced fused glass art is as robust as window glass.
Look after it - place it well, and the glass will last longer than you will :)
What’s a particularly challenging or rewarding piece you've created?
I love Abundance, a recent roundel. It was more difficult and involved than anything I’d done previously.
Almost all of it is curves - I wanted the petals to really flow in an organic way.
I also created small glass miniatures on stands to complement the larger main Abundance piece, which is a new idea in glass art I’m interested in - new ways to display the glass to its best.
Just because they're small, doesn't make them any less complicated!
But I like them all, everything I do, with each one more and more complex. Painstaking work!
Takes ages but I think it’s always worth it.
With so many followers you must get problems with knock-offs, copies and fakes. How do you avoid this?
All my work is video authenticated. Each work has a number of videos showing me making it. You can’t fake that. Plus every work is signed engraved on the back, and comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity.
But increasingly as I’ve been getting more and more public attention, I see more and more works with my Hard Edge influences, which is a compliment I suppose :)
Really, I’d like to inspire budding Hard Edge glass artists to develop their own styles and ideas.
Where do you see the future of Hard Edge glass art going? How do you fit into this?
Glass art is booming generally. Hard Edge glass art is a distinct recognisable style that people like. I like being a pioneer in the style.
But generally I don’t look at other peoples’ work. I’m too busy doing my own.
If I’m not doing Hard Edge art glass I feel I’m wasting my time.
What’s your message to someone seeing Hard Edge glass for the first time?
Just look at it. It speaks for itself. It’ll make you feel happy!
