My sister and I were going through family photographs one day and we found a photo of my grandfather in his World War I uniform. I knew my grandfather as a much older man and I was taken by his youth and vulnerability in the picture. As a student of history I also thought deeply about the terrible situations this young man was about to encounter in World War I. My grandfather was a beloved figure from my childhood; I wanted to create a glass piece that would honor him. Using this particular photograph seemed like a perfect idea.
I took the photo and enlarged it in Photoshop. Manipulating the photo as I had been taught in an image transfer class at Bullseye Resouce Center in Santa Fe, NM, I made a silkscreen with the image on it.
The frame around the piece was constructed with glass created with the flow slab process. After firing the flow slab, the sections used in the frame are cut off the slab with a wet tile saw, laid up in a pattern, and fired to the base glass at a temperature that created a glossy finish.
After applying glass powder through the silkscreen, I fired the piece at a lower temperature, creating a glossy frame with a matte photo in the middle.
This finished piece is hanging in my studio and reminds me daily of my grandfather, Eugene, whose life and experiences as a young man are mysterious and unknown to me.
