November 15, 2003 York News-Times article at the time Brice donated “ELECTRICAL STORM AND SUNRISE OF IMAGINATION.”
[The texts below are copied from “archived” snapshots of Brice’s former web sites at the “wayback machine”. The original formatting is not preserved. The ideas are contemporary with the production of “ELECTRICAL STORM AND SUNRISE OF IMAGINATION.”] — Stan Schulz, Library Director, Kilgore Memorial Library.
From 2004/2005 www.hammerlaneglass.com and 2005/2006 www.btglass.com/howdy.html:
Where I am, Where I’ve been // established 2000 // The Studio
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Howdy from Kansas! Hammerlane Glass is a small art glass studio between Wichita and Kansas City. Our glassblower, Brice, lives and works on a little stretch of prairie, just north of Emporia. When not enjoying the dry heat of the middle west, Brice appreciates an opportunity to drift in the Pacific surf. Several watery daydreams have found expression in textures, colors, and decorative scenes within the marbles, paperweights, and stoppered bottles pulled from the glass furnace. |
Just to keep things interesting during those mythical hours of sleep, the on-staff astral traveler dreams of colorful Fire Dancers, and stars in distant reaches of the Universe. Dream with me, and spark your imagination with the reflection of glass as your power source.
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Brice Turnbull - designer, glassblower, beanie weenie connoisseur
Near here is a neat little town called Cottonwood Falls. One of my first small wholesale accounts was at one end of Broadway, the 3 block long main street. While in town to drop off some new work in the summer of 2002, the owner said I “had” to stop in and see the new “copper lady” who was working in her gallery across from the bank.
[snip]
Tara Gale is a copper worker, photographer, poet, writer, and stone jeweler amongst other things. She had some of all this in that little storefront when we met, which made it quite interesting to get to know her. Speaking with her inside the gallery was somewhat like being inside her imagination, surrounded by her thoughts & wishes, memories and visions. I was surprised to find someone so engaging and pleasant in this small town that I had nearly overlooked.
Well, after working together and traveling a bit (Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, all over Kansas, and much of Colorado) I came to my senses and realized if I didn’t get her to marry me, she might drive off into the sunset alone! I asked her the next day, and she said yes :)
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[snipped paragraphs about shows and sales in 2004]
As you may notice, much of my life is tied to my business. I feel lucky to have met a wonderfully cheerful, beautiful woman who enjoys the same life & career I do. And she even likes pizza! I don’t know why she doesn’t seem to be hungry when I fix beanie weenies, but I’m sure she’ll come around after we’re married. Right? I’m Brice the glassblower, and my wife Tara is the copperworker. We’ve been living at our little farmhouse on the prairie in Eastern Kansas for about 5 years, but are now |
| moving to Salida, Colorado where we’ve opened a small gallery, and are looking forward to expanding to have the hot glass studio inside a larger gallery by the summer of ‘06.
[The image (right) shows that goal was met.] |
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I offer a changing variety of modern art glass including a few production paperweight lines, and many one of a kind fine craft pieces and art centerpieces. All glass shown here is made by me, as I am part of the Studio Glass movement, blossoming in America now for 35 years. The studio glass movement puts control of the glass in the hands of the designer, as opposed to the factory model which usually employs a designer separately, and then breaks the glassmaking into short tasks by several glassworkers, or is pressed or blown by machine for high speed production.
I enjoy making decorative glass, and am continually playing with new shapes, and different color combinations. As one little part of the studio glass movement, I am proud to offer good quality work, and hope that you can see that hand crafted work is more personable than machine produced stock. I am educated as an artist, and I sometimes have ‘big’ ideas about my work. The great thing about glass is that that even a little piece can hold a good deal of intricacies, and change appearance with the passing of the sun, or alterations in direct lighting.
[From 2006 btglass.com]:
I enjoy exploring color layering techniques. My particular favorites are earthy, powerful combinations of alternating coloration. More complex than an opposing shade in a lip-wrap, or contrasting stripe or spiral, I’m learning to load up a space with information. The viewer may choose to process such a piece at their leisure - an overview today, and an interview tomorrow.
A related direction taken is to gently fit three or four courses of decorative components on top of each other, and to use differing illumination during display to disclose the separate ingredients in the context of the larger formula. The aim is to present one supporting hue and its details with light directed at the piece, and a second set of features pronouncing themselves when the work is lit from within, or from behind it’s face. I am still engaged in the exploration of form, and so I frequently encounter both new chromatic syntheses, as well as new bodies to hold them.
And sometimes I just make a little something fun ;) — copyright Brice Turnbull 1999-2005, 2006.
[Thanks, Brice, for permission to quote you — Stan Schulz]