Barbara Bernstein studied glassmaking at Urban Glass, the Studio at the Corning Museum, and Pilchuck Glass School. She has taken classes with the Higuchis, Rudy Gritsch, Rene Culler and Anna Boothe, as well as many other inspiring glass-makers. She opened her own kilnforming studio in upstate New York in 2001.

Exhibitions

      “Glass Art from the Finger Lakes”, Corning, NY, 2001

      “Summer’s End Exhibition”, Owego, NY, 2001

      “Wine and Food Exhibition”, Robeson Museum, Binghamton, NY, 2003

      Fine Art Society of the Southern Tier exhibit, Johnson City, NY, 2003

      Goblet Competition, Eugene Glass School, OR, 2003

      “On the Wall”, Kittrell / Riffkind Art Glass, Dallas, TX, 2003

Artist’s Statement

The subject of greatest interest to me is the face. I have always been concerned with emotions; those that can be seen by others and those that are hidden. Facial expressions enrich a conversation, conveying unspoken thoughts and feelings. To illustrate this, I sculpted an Alphabet of Faces out of clay, conveying twenty-six different emotions. Glass is a perfect medium for casting these sculptures; one sees through the glass in the same manner that people’s faces let you glimpse the feelings within.

Until I began casting these pieces, I had been mostly concerned with form and transparency. But each emotion suggested a different color and when I began playing with color, each color created a different sensation. I am now entranced with color, especially how it glows as light passes through the glass. In fact, the dictionary defines color as “that aspect of things that is caused by different qualities of the light reflected or emitted by them.” When I cast glass, I explore the relationship between glass and color and light.