Where Science and Art Meet - the Story so far!
Anthropology is about the science of human beings.
Shaping glass as it transforms from a solid to a liquid is about the science of heat and gravity and the beauty of refraction and reflection, softness and hardness, transparency and opacity.
Jo combines her love of science and art by using the medium of glass to make sculptures about social anthropology - the origin, nature and destiny of human beings. Her work explores the culture, stories, myths, beliefs and language that tie groups of people together - whilst also integrating her love of colour along the way.
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My glass story started when I was young - my mum was an artistic painter, a lover of biology and also a super craftswoman. She did knitting, sewing, puppet-making, woodwork, copper work, leather punching, and gardening - in addition to fine acrylic and water colour painting My Dad was interested in geography, politics, reading and also making things. I also loved reading, science, dance, art, craft, travelling and making things - just doing lots of stuff!
My first job (way back in the mid eighties!) was in Medical Laboratory Technology. I loved science - especially biology - and a long time before the industry was mechanised, I got to work with test tubes, petri dishes, glass slides and pipettes - measuring and mixing liquids and chemicals, and spending a lot of time looking down a microscope while I worked my way through an apprenticeship in Haematology and Cytology.
Fast forward through the next 22 years by which time I had done a three year OE, and studied and worked in the other loves of my life - English Literature, Linguistics, Anthropology and Design. During this time I arrived at the door of a mosaic workshop which then led to a mosaic conference in Hobart, Tasmania. It was here that I heard a presentation by a sculptor of life sized birds - some with a wing span of 5 metres in length - and each wing was decorated with kilnformed glass feathers!
I was fascinated and hooked - and after twelve years my fascination has not ended.
I love my job! And I am passionate about what I do!