Field Notes: Artists Observe Nature

November 16, 2024 - Summer 2025

Vittorio Costantini (Italian, born 1944). *Entomological Specimens.* Hot-sculpted glass. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.

Exhibition Overview

Not surprisingly, artists have looked to the natural world for inspiration for millennia. And, since the turn of the 20th century, there have been significant moments in which artists have sought to mimic the forms and patterns of nature in glass. This exhibition begins with works from the Art Nouveau period, roughly between 1890 and 1910, centered in France during the Belle Époque. The movement’s signature focus on blossoms, birds, and insects combined with sinuous organic tendrils was a reaction against the academic style and historicism of the previous century. These stylistic markers shone with particular brilliance in the decorative and applied arts and architecture. The style reached its apogee at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, where the Art Nouveau interpretations in glass by Émile Gallé, René Lalilque, and the Daum Brothers were introduced, along with stained glass marvels by American Louis Comfort Tiffany.

More than a century later, contemporary glass artists have been similarly inspired by the natural world as a focus in their work. Included in this exhibition is the series Native Species by William Morris. In this body of work, Morris used the hot shop metaphorically as a walk through a Pacific Northwest forest, creating thirty-eight vessels with applied hot-sculpted pinecones, pine needles, deciduous leaves, and birds. Vittorio Costantini created a series of three hundred lampworked glass insect specimens, as etymologically correct possible, to rival an arthropod collection at a natural history museum. Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace have devoted much of their studio practice to the assiduous observation of nature. They have advanced the tradition of ornithological illustration—inspired by the likes of John James Audubon and John Gould — to literally “draw” birds in glass powder on glass “pages.” The have also collected botanical specimens and developed a means to preserve them in composite and glass. These works are similar to traditional herbaria specimens, but remarkably retain the true colors of the plant. These contemporary artists in no way imitate the style of Art Nouveau, but their fascination with forms in nature are sympathetic to their artistic forebears.

Featured Images

Image Credits

Vittorio Costantini (Italian, born 1944). Entomological Specimen. Hot-sculpted glass. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.
Vittorio Costantini (Italian, born 1944). Entomological Specimens. Hot-sculpted glass. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.
Joey Kirkpatrick (American, born 1952) and Flora C. Mace (American, born 1949). Bird Page: Barn Owl, 2004. Glass and steel; 17 1/2 x 14 x 6 inches. Courtesy of the artists.
Joey Kirkpatrick (American, born 1952) and Flora C. Mace (American, born 1949). Snipe Daffodil, 2021. Flower, composite, glass, and steel; 22 3/4 x 18 x 7 inches. Courtesy of the artists.
William Morris (American, born 1957). Footed Dragonfly Bowl, 2004. Dusted vessel, hot-glass applied shards, wrapping on lip and foot, and hot-glass applied sculpted dragonfly; 9 3/4 x 7 5/8 x 8 inches. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.
William Morris (American, born 1957). Footed Specimen Bowl, 2004. Glass with applied desert artifacts; 6 7/8 x 16 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.
William Morris (American, born 1957). Vase with Ponderosa Pine Branches, 2004. Dusted vessel, pine needle pick-up, hot-glass applied pine boughs; 18 5/8 x 8 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.
William Morris (American, born 1957). Vase with Wren and Berries, 2004. Dust-drawn berry bush, applied boughs, engraved leaves, berries, and bird; 10 x 8 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches. The George R. Stroemple Collection, A Stroemple/Stirek Collaboration.