Varda Avnisan

" I approach glass as a language: its luminescence and transparency, volume and weight, and qualities of light and shadow are elements I use in translating the visual and sensual realities around me. "

Varda's work is influenced by abstract art, as well as tile and tapestry work of the Mediterranean. Her pieces are born of a half-formed idea, a fragment of narrative, or a particular emotion. The development of each piece from design to execution is a negotiation between the physical hardness of glass and the fluidity of its form and the interplay of color and pattern. Her work is always evolving and she is constantly exploring new ways to bend and break the limits of the medium.

Varda creates her pieces by first designing elements in the form of glass canvases or swatches of fabric. After fusing she cuts those elements and reassembles them according to a design that best creates harmony of color and pattern. She then slumps her pieces into molds to create vessels that can be functional as well as decorative.

Varda has studied extensively with leading glass artists in the US, has taken numerous classes in the Washington, DC area and around the country, including at the Bullseye Glass in Portland Oregon and the Corning Studio in Corning, NY, where she assisted Italian glass artist Miriam Di Fiore in 2007. She is also teaching workshops at Glen Echo Art Glass Center, Glen Echo, MD.