ISGB 2023 KeyNote Speaker

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The International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB) is proud to announce Kit Paulson as our 2023 Gathering Keynote Speaker. Kit will provide us with incredible inspiration through her work as she brings together art, science, and the absurd. Her glass art will leave you breathless and curious for more. We are thrilled that she will share her journey with us at our annual Gathering  in Omaha.  

Exploring the Natural World

in an Unnatural Way

Kit  describes her current body of work: “I am exploring the line between work that is highly decorative and downright bizarre. These pieces are heavily influenced by the Victorian aesthetic of using natural elements to construct quasi-scientific, wholly unnatural scenes that could not exist in the natural world. I want my viewers to look closer and be visually rewarded for that closer look. I want to communicate my own fascination with the incredible detail of the natural world and with the incredible detail that can be produced by the human hand.”

Anyone who works with glass will find inspiration with Kit’s body of work that can be done in the flame. She states, “Much of the process of making my work involves using hot, liquid glass as a sculptural material. For me, the manipulation of hot glass is a joyous exercise of muscle memory, material understanding, and instantaneous reaction to the peculiarities of the substance. I work with glass as a sculptural medium, because it allows me to make detailed, precious, fragile objects. I value glass for its inherent aesthetic properties in which it can be transparent, translucent, shiny, hard, or easily broken. I also value it for the way it has historically been used to make containers, vessels, lenses, mirrors, and other items. I find constant inspiration in both of the attributes of the material.”

Kit’s Current Work

We highly recommend that you visit her website to view Kit’s current work. One of the things you’ll find is The Magpie Museum of Disorderly Inquiry, a collection of objects, all made from glass and arranged in the style of a cabinet of curiosities, or wunder kammer.

The objects are based on real things, but they are not exact replicas. Each is a small vignette, an impression of an object, rather than an attempt to rigorously render reality. The manmade objects in this collection are from the past, but rarely a specific past.