Jen Fuller - USA

30 x 30 x 2      From ice to glass, an idea was born. About ten years ago, a child in my life made the extraordinary winter discovery of ice leaf formations; this sparked the creative quandary of whether nature's ephemeral ice leaves could be recreated and made permanent — in glass. I became impassioned with recreating the rich textures of nature in as hyppereal and as expansive of a pâte de verre specimen collection as possible. My new series "Nature Mandalas" expands upon my current glass botanical collection with the edition of entomology. Utilizing powder glass frit, molded and kiln-fused one layer at a time, Cicadas play center stage of this composition that celebrates 2021’s 17-year reemergence of Brood X. Further exploration include: the samaras leaves recently picked from the tree above my studio door; and Ginko Biloboa leaves, which are the oldest tree specimens on earth that call back to the dinosaur age. This mandala pays homage to the fleeting moments in nature and the fixed representation of those moments captured in art.