Kait Rhoads at work in her studio.
GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet: What are you working on?
Kait Rhoads: At any given point I’m working on three or four different pieces in my “Closed Forms,” “Sculptures,” “Soft Sculptures,” “Vessels,” or “Wall Panel” series. Right now, I’m finalizing a Soft Sculpture, made of pink glass “hollow murrine” woven together with copper wire into the form of a liver. I just got it back from metalworker (and glass artist) Jeremy Bosworth, so now it has a steel stand. As a finishing touch, I’m adding a stream of black freshwater pearls woven with silver wire that will cascade from the liver to pool on the stand and drip onto the surface beneath the piece.
In the body, the liver acts as the main filter of toxins; the Eastern belief is that the liver is the seat of the emotions. If the liver is overtaxed, other surrounding organs can take up the slack for it, causing dysfunctions. Due to the build-up of heavy metals in my own system, I’ve been cleansing my liver. This piece is a type of constructive visualization of the function of a healthy liver (an attractive although unrealistic candy pink) expelling bile. I use the black pearls to represent the bile so as not to demonize the waste produced by the liver, but to celebrate both the eliminative process and product.
Kait Rhoads new work Liver (2010) is an exploration of both literal and metaphorical cleansing and renewal.
The “Soft Sculptures” series grew out of my deep-seated affinity for fiber-based construction (macramé and decorative knot tying) coupled with love of color (I was a painter before I found glass) and a connection with architectural components (math and Legos). The glass ‘hollow murrine’ that I make are nature’s design: the calcified hex tubes that are the most simple building block of the coral reef or the beeswax cell walls of a hive. (You can learn more about my process in a video here). Much of my time with glass is spent in the hotshop working within a group where decisions are made quickly and irrevocably. In contrast, the ability to form glass in a process that is slow and meditative gives me time to reflect on the work in a solitary manner and allows each Soft Sculpture to flower in its own time.
GLASS: What artwork have you experienced recently that has moved you, and got you thinking about your own work?
Kait: The inspiration for the woven work is derived from my emotions, life experience, and nature. I grew up in the Bahamas and U.S. Virgin Islands. Living on a boat on the surface of the ocean has given me an unshakeable reverence for the natural world. For six years I lived in a space smaller than 500 square feet, free floating on water with three other people. The youngest in the family, I became hypersensitive to other’s needs and emotions to survive at an early age. Having grown up half under the water, the subaquatic environment made of fantastical shapes and languid movement I experienced became linked in my mind to the physical manifestation of emotional forces that I perceived in my life above.
Kait Rhoads, Sideweed, 2010. Blown glass, green and gold hollow murrine woven with copper wire, on steel wall mount.H 16, W 26, D 16 in.
Regarding work I’ve been influenced by, I find myself more drawn to experiences. After Thanksgiving, my friend Elin Christopherson took me surfing for the first time in Santa Cruz, California. To be able to sit on the surfboard and just feel the ocean flow underneath me, to play with a tip of great kelp and to avoid getting pushed around by the surf was pretty wonderful. Every time I get in the water I have this feeling of being home, and I actually find more inspiration there than in any museum.
That being said the last artist’s work that I encountered that ignited a spark in my head was at the Woodside Braseth Gallery here in Seattle. I was there for my friend Jared Rue’s show and there was a Northwest master’s work being shown as well: James W. Washington Jr. There were a number of his stone birds there as well as some painting and drawings. The birds were so modern and minimalistic, the simplicity of their form and their placement on top of the simple wooden bases were classical, but stunning. I responded to the inherent spiritual quality of the work, and its refusal to become derivative of Northwest indigenous art.
GLASS: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions you can talk about?
Kait: I’m currently at work on a commission of two Soft Sculptures of seaweed for the Celebrity cruise ship Equinox (launching in April 2010). The Celebrity sister ship Eclipse has a number of my vessels and closed forms. Both of these cruise ships have a Corning Museum of Glass hot shop on them.
So far I have a show scheduled for May of 2011 with Traver Gallery in Seattle. I’m represented as well by Schantz Galleries, Chappell Gallery, Holsten Galleries, and Pismo Gallery. Since the economic downturn I’ve put some energy into creating jewelry that is shown locally at Facere, sometimes in collaboration with local artist Jana Brevick.
This summer, I’ll also be teaching a short class at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan, and at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.