glass

BeCON's over and done, my creativity is stirred, my glassjones are bubbling, and I'm bubbling over with new glassist friends. Here's a wrap-up of my 2011 BeCON reports--but if you don't want to read that, how about the best (and not so best) of BeCON 2011?

The presence of Portland Farmers Market a few yards away might be reason enough to attend BeCon, Bullseye's biannual glass conference, but there are others. I usually gain fresh insights, and the one I picked up this year was a doozy, quite possibly not one intended by our hosts: Glass isn't a medium, it's a crutch. We don't need to cross over as much as we need to throw away the crutch. (Honk if you think that's scary)

If yesterday's BeCON was about art vs. craft, today's was about superstars, the rovers who successfully made the trip from glass artist to artist, or who retained an open enough mind to cross into kiln forming for awhile. Or at least it started out that way, since the opening presentation was Lino Tagliapietra, Dante Marioni and Marc Petrovic talking about the intersection of glassblowing and kilnforming with BE research dude Ted Sawyer.

You can generally say three things about the first half-day of Bullseye's BeCON glass conference; It's the world's longest half-day (about 16 hours this time), it involves a lot of hugging, and the best part happens after 7pm. Thank heavens they didn't decide to make this a FULL day.

Glassists are swarming like bees into Portland (AKA "glassland"). I've got a houseful, my friends are equally full up, and we're all getting ready for BeCON, Bullseye's biannual conference on glass art. It starts Thursday afternoon with keynotes and gallery receptions, ends Saturday night with lehr-baked BBQ ribs (from pigs, not attendees). In between we'll listen to lectures, gorge on Portland Farmer's Market goodies, watch demos and talk about...(drumroll)...glass.

We came, we fused, we laughed. That pretty much sums up this year's Fusathon which, when you think about it, means a pretty good time was had by all. Fusathons, for those of you who don't know, are the Oregon Glass Guild's annual charitable fusing parties.