Through the Looking Glass: Wrightwood's winter glass art exhibition
By Maximilian Morici
Asha Ramirez
“Uncomfortably Numb”
Cast CFL glass, barbed wire
2024
A dichotomous example of the fragility of glass surrounded by the protection and safety of barbed wire.
This mixed media piece catches the light, trapping it like the barbed wire that surrounds it.
The title "Uncomfortably Numb” gives the nostalgic feeling of the phrase, “comfortably numb”, but with a twist. It leads one to believe that maybe even after you go numb from the pain, you can still feel uncomfortable.
Asha Ramirez
“Time Capsule No.1/ Time Capsule No.2”
Cast CFL glass
2024
Glass is a magnificent way to encapsulate many things and preserve them — what better thing to capture than time. Freeze it in molten glass and form a transparent window into the past.
These renditions of a time capsule serve as a brief but beautiful look into that which none of us can escape from. They stand silent, ever watchful, reaching towards the sky like so many of us do with our last breath.
Alessandro Corsaro
“How Sweet the Ruin”
Blown glass, Mixed Media
2025
Some say the heart is like a pomegranate.
Full of little pieces of ourselves bundled into a larger whole that beats our fiber into being. We pull out pieces of our heart, bit by bit, giving them away or consuming them in self pity.
One day we will cast aside our pericarp. Devoid of any fruit left to bear, the last of the sweet nectar of our being spilling onto the earth, and the maggots will consume what remains.
Colleen Sparlin
“Mountain Mists, Wave”
Fused Glass
2025
Functional and elegant. A cup is a simple invention — one that granted us the ability to transport liquids or other substances over distance.
However, the craftsmanship of a truly good cup is a muse work of art and function. The taste changes — and I might add the very energy changes.
Anyone who has ever used a truly well loved and finely crafted cup can tell you, it makes all the difference in the world.
The finer details of this cup were of particular interest to me.
The intricate spirals. The color packed into a glass bubble.
It garners an emotion that pulls you to reach for this glass. It begs you to use its function. To fill its vessel with spiraling liquid. To admire it on the table top as it catches the light casting a gentle purple shadow across the ground.
What a privilege it must be to hold such a cup.
Chiara Lutz
“Cellulose”
Kiln formed glass, Neon, Walnut, Cherry and Mirror
2025
My initial thoughts on this piece were that it would make a great bathroom window. The dark wood grants more light to come through the soft blue and green patterned glass.
It brings a calming sense of a river flowing nearby. It also brings the feeling that, seeing it from the outside, you would wonder what is going on behind such an iridescent portal to the other side.
Whoever purchases this window well have a piece that brings more questions than answers.
Jill Carlton Payne
“If the Shoe Fits”
Glass Mosaic
2025
Anyone with an eye for flair would hope that this shoe fits.
The sparkling vibrant colors catch the eye as soon as you enter the room. Up close it is even more dazzling.
Verdant greens with a sparkling gold under-layer. Ruby reds bring danger and life to this coiling serpent tucked in the corner.
This piece spits venom and opulence from a time long forgotten. A pair of these could make anything shine.
Asha Ramirez
“Spoon Theory”
Cast Crystal
2024
Crystal spoons floating in the air like ethereal dancers poised in a pirouette.
The light dances in their faces like oddly shaped stars in the night’s sky.
I can only imagine what the theory of spoons must be, but I am sure using one of these to stir would make your coffee taste better. That is my theory.
Kazumi Kobayashi Svenson
“Find”
Glass, Mixed Media
2025
Encased in a glass dome, a child in an animal costume sits atop a log in a glass forest. They carefully raise their hand to something beyond our perception.
The scene is dark and only the light of the moon shines revealing this fragile glass child.
One can only wonder what they found.
Asha Ramirez
“Locked in Agony”
Blown glass, Steel, Nails, Chain, Lock
2024
A visceral depiction of a joint locked in place. A morbid metaphor for what those experiencing this loss of mobility must feel like.
Unable to move the way that they want to, while simultaneously feeling fragile like glass.
A metal chain wrapped and locked around where the metal beam should bend. Even the strongest of us will slowly have our chains tightened by time, rendering us immobile.
Locked in Agony.