Seattle Artist Explores the Transparency of Language

“Poetic Intentions” a tour-de-force exhibit of original text on glass by Seattle artist Jeff Crandall is now on display at the Museum of Northwest Art in LaConner, Washington through June 4, 2006.

Scheduled to run concurrently with a local poetry festival, the exhibit combines language and glass in a multitude of forms. Over 430 pieces of glass have been assembled into 28 individual artworks.

The exhibit begins with “Exploded Sonnets,” two hanging curtains made up of 280 plate glass ovals, each sandblasted with a single syllable from a pair of sonnets by the artist. “I want the viewer to experience physically what reading a poem does mentally,” says Crandall, “transporting you from the mundane the world into a place of magic and back again.” Serving as both entrance and exit to the space, the piece points out the grid-like structure of the sonnet’s 10 syllables per line and fourteen lines, while also “echoing the shattering loss of love expressed in the poems.” Crandall began his career as a poet and transitioned to glass after working for Pilchuck Glass School.

Other works include:

“All Bottled Up” A daunting display of 85 cobalt blue wine bottles each sandblasted with a different emotion and the label: “Warning: Contents under pressure. Store in a secure place. Keep tightly sealed.”

“Shattered” a large glass sphere broken into 20 pieces, each sandblasted with text musing on loss and recovery, such as: “I am broken, yes. But broken like bread – a piece for everyone.”

A series of 11 collages made up of torn book pages and mounted on glass panes. Each collage sports a large single word, which, taken collectively, spell out the phrase: “Every heaven needs a hell, for without envy paradise is nothing.”

Three pieces from Crandall’s “What Lies Within” series: large (20x40”) steel plates from which hang single panes of plate glass. Each pane displays one bold word, such as BELIEVE, and is sandblasted on the reverse side so that light coming through the word only projects the middle three letters: LIE.


Contact – Artist: Jeff Crandall jeff.crandall@yahoo.com
(206) 766-8007

Contact – Museum: Susan Parke, Curator susanp@museumofnwart.org (360) 466-4446 ext. 105
121 South 1st St.
La Conner WA 98257 www.museumofnwart.org

Open 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day. $5 donation suggested admission.