Paul Stankard at work in the studio.
REVISED 12/8
GLASS: What are you working on?
Paul Stankard: Lately I’ve been looking at the single flowering plants I did in the 1970s as botanical portraits. I’m interested in reconnecting to that spirit of discovery that defined my early work. Over recent years, my floral designs have become compressed into complex clusters of flowers, berries, figures, and winged insects, suggesting myth and the fecundity of the plant world. What’s been interesting is to realize how difficult it is to go back and recapture that truth to nature —almost innocence — of my early glass. The current challenge is to advance the work with the maturity that comes with 45 years of experience.
Paul Stankard, Flowering Blue Eye Grass, circa 1978. Flameworked, encapsulated colored glass. H 1 14/16, D 2 1/2 in. courtesy: robert m. minkoff foundation
My artistic vocabulary is the result of a strong need to share what’s important to me using the flameworking process. Spirituality finds its way into my work on many levels, and is celebrated by celebrating the Benedictine monks motto “To Labor is to Pray.” One challenge is to express myself without allowing the technical aspects to overshadow the beauty or the idea of the finished piece. At this stage of the game, I’m searching for ways to take this hard-won artistic vocabulary and distill it into work that makes sense to me on many levels, spiritual and emotional being the two strongest.
Paul Stankard, Golden Orb Floral Triptych, 2009. H 5 1/4, W 7, D 3 in. Flameworked colored glass, encapsulated in clear glass, cold-worked, cut, polished, and laminated. courtesy: robert m. minkoff foundation
The Golden Orb Floral Triptych (2009) represents my creative vocabulary focused on native flowers in ways that suggest a colorful encyclopedic format. The golden orb suspended in the design celebrates mystery in an ambiguous way. Working in the direction, I hope to refine and celebrate my take on nature in ways that simplify my flameworked glass inclusions. I think of this effort as being reminiscent of my early botanical portraits.
GLASS: What artwork have you experienced recently that has moved you, and got you thinking about your own work?
Paul: I love literature and read constantly with an audio aid. The words of Walt Whitman who celebrates nature in a mystical way continue to touch me and my work. The only way I can put it is that his words spark in my soul. Then there’s the sculptural work of the late Robert Graham that has a strange truthfulness in the celebration of the human figure. His work creates a psychological tension in my being. When I look at his work, and the way he challenges my senses, it’s like being confronted by a living thing. I also continually revisit the late American expressionist painter Morris Graves, especially his floral paintings, there’s a personal and special connection for me to his flowers; it’s a sincere depiction, very Zen in the way he is able to present nature with such purity.
I feel the need to reexamine and reconnect with my early work. I want to go back to a time when “Is it art or is it craft?” was not an issue or even thought about. I am acutely aware of being close to the end of my journey and I pray I’ll have the energy to get it right after so many years of struggle. My time to pull it all together is now and I want to connect what was special from the past to what is made today. This is my last shot at doing what I feel is important and I’m not going to waste my time on work that doesn’t give me a knot in my gut when I think about creating it.
GLASS: Do you have any upcoming exhibitions you can talk about?
Paul: Jane Sauer will be showing my work in July 2010, both at SOFA West as well as in a solo exhibition in her gallery, Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe. My work can also be seen on an ongoing basis at both Heller and Ken Saunders galleries.