Jeff Mack at work in the studio.
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Jeff Mack: I’m currently working on three artistic projects. All of my work involves collaboration in one form or another. The first is a process-driven new line of artistic vessels called “Dream Bottles” (see photo below). The “Dream Bottles” series are organic forms that utilize the various qualities of blown glass — transparency, opacity, color, volume, and patterning — to create a harmonious whole that is meant to resemble the focused energies of the creative act receding into a contemplative inner space. I’ve been creating this series with the assistance of Emon King, Lydia Boss, and Robin Rogers.
A pair of vessels from Jeff Mack's ongoing "Dream Bottles" series.
On the more concept-driven side (something that is pretty new and different for me), I’ve got a couple of exciting collaborative projects. Most recently, I’ve been creating a series of glass characters in various poses for a stop-action animated short that I’m working on with renowned animator, Gary Schwartz.
I’ve also been working collaboratively on a project with metals artist Hans Rubel from the Toledo Museum of Art to create a reliquary to house a special Guggenheim cup I created with glass artist Adam Thomas. The cup is made from neodymium glass, which, because of an anomaly in its composition, changes in color under different lighting conditions. The reliquary will house incandescent and fluorescent light sources that will pulse back and fourth, changing the color of the goblet as they go, from pale blue to lavender. Tom Burke from the TMA is helping me to work out the electrical components. The concept is about presenting and enshrining something intangible, but inevitably present. The reality of change and transition, the cyclical nature of those constants is something that I want this work to evoke as well as the idea of presenting a space or object that is suspended between various realities.
I spend about a day a week creating my own objects at the furnace for these various directions. This practice is really at the core of my creative endeavors with glass. When I’m not working on these ideas, I focus on making functional things: tableware, glasses, and stemware. I’m continually refining this area of my work. Additionally, I am working on a limited edition line of wine glasses for the TMA in collaboration with TMA glass artist, Robin Schultes. This year will be our second design edition and will be due out this fall.
I’m also working on some designs for a new tableware line due out in fall as well. Both of these editions will be available through the TMA’s Collector’s Corner sometime before Thanksgiving.
GLASS: What artwork have you experienced recently that has moved you, and got you thinking about your own work?
Jeff: Well, working as glass studio manager at a museum with a collection like Toledo’s doesn’t hurt. Any time I walk through the galleries, there’s an opportunity to be moved at least a little bit. Most recently though, I found myself moved by simply experiencing the nature of the Glass Pavilion’s unique architecture. I was walking and talking as I was giving a tour around, and noticed odd sound distortions in specific parts of a room caused by the curving glass and the reflection of the sound. I found it fascinating and I wondered if that was an anticipated effect. I’m moved by the relationship between glass and sound through purposeful instruments or unintentional, and would like to resolve that interest through work, someday.
Jeff Mack's "Dream Bottle" series is a collaboration with Emon King, Lydia Boss, and Robin Rogers.
GLASS: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions where we might see your work?
Jeff: As far as exhibiting goes, I’m not really prolific on this front and I don’t really push this issue with myself as much as I should. With work for the Toledo Museum and my family, I often have to choose how I spend my time with my art. That means choosing between creating, or marketing and managing sales and gallery relationships. More often than not, the creating wins out, and the business gets neglected.
But recently I’ve been releasing work locally through the Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, Ohio, and the Collector’s Corner at the Toledo Museum store. I also currently have work in a show called “Vessels” at the Angels Gate Cultural Center in Palo Alto, California.