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ART TALKS
The Intriguing Work of Joy Motisi and Susan Cicconi-Killiany
By Paul Joseph Walkowski
If you never considered adding glassware to your art collection, think again. These two talented artists demonstrate a flare for visual art that transforms the medium into something valuable, beautiful and eminently collectable.
"Planters Punch", decoupage art glass, © by Susan C. Killiany
"Owl on Branch", stained glass, 20" x 15", © by Joy Motisi
What is canvas or board but canvas and board?
What indeed!
To a tent maker or sheet rocker, canvas and board have one use. To an artist, canvas and board are mediums upon which one adds paint to create works of art. It’s all canvas or board at the start; what it ends up as when the artisan is finished may be something altogether different.
The artist transforms the medium by what he or she adds to it, and what is added is the individual’s creative talent. It is this personal dimension that increases value, whether building a house or creating a fine arts painting. In the transformation process a section of canvas or board that can be purchased for less than thirty dollars, when supplemented by what the artist adds, can then be resold for thousands or even millions of dollars.
So, when I suggest that art collectors consider adding certain glassware to their collections, it’s not because glassware is so valuable, even though some glass pieces can be both beautiful and expensive, but rather because someone, usually an artist, has added something extra to it, something that transcends the medium and ultimately transforms the ordinary, or even beautiful, into something altogether different: a work of art.
Stained glass designer and constructor, Joy Motisi, and decoupeur and fine art restorer, Susan Cicconi-Killiany are two artists who have chosen glassware as their medium. Their creations have transformed ordinary glassware, into truly unique, valuable and collectable items.
I have written about Susan and Joy in previous Art Talks columns, and for those who would like a more detailed history of their careers, those columns will be informative. It is their art, however; the uniqueness of their creations that now fascinates and which I recommend.
Both Joy and Susan have demonstrated through their work a happy talent for original and truly amazing compositions. Like any other work of art, what makes their creations so worthwhile, and especially valuable to a collector, in addition to the years of experience they bring to their trade, is its individuality. Indeed, while you can find stained glass and even mass produced decoupage in arts & crafts and other stores that specialize in home ware, what you won’t likely find in these stores are original works created by masters in their profession. For that, you have to go to a gallery that specializes in offering such works, and rely on the name and reputation of the gallery and artist to separate the chaff from the grain, figuratively speaking, thus assuring the quality and lasting value of what you purchase.
"The Great Heron" © by Joy Motisi
"Clam Mirror" w/ Blue "Candlelite" reflected © by Joy MotisiJoy’s imagination and careful selection of various textures and colors of glass, coupled with her expert use of the tools of her trade: glass cutter, glassplyers, grinders, copper foil, and soldering iron, has resulted in a body of work that is stunning. Over the past year, especially, her arrangement of glass in three dimensional compositions has given her work an almost hypnotic attraction to the viewer. Her work is not mosaic, which is a popular trend, as it is descriptive – a unique technique that is more personal and which Joy defines as stained glass art. You view her work and see an owl, a loon, a fanciful distraction or, perhaps, a colorful metal dragonfly or butterfly on beveled candlelites perched along the edge, and you study it and think about it and then smile at the playful juxtaposition.
And then you look further at the fine detail, at the artist’s hand at work, the careful positioning of each piece of glass, the kind of glass used, as well as the color – some of it so individualized that it begs a question: where did this come from? “Each piece tells a story,” Motisi says, “ a blue agate meteor streaking across an antique glass sky, iridized glass around an imbedded sunburst” as in her work, Rainbows and Light. In The Great Heron she uses reflection mirrors with overlaid river clams and agate slices, and a glass water lily placed upon the frame.
"Peppermint Dandy" © by Susan C. KillianySusan, too, has carved out a unique niche as an artist. Using her skill as a paper conservator and restorer of fine art, Susan, a Sotheby’s preferred restorer of choice for their historic collectable auctions, has restored everything from original Picasso’s to Superman comic books. She uses a palette comprised not of dabs of colorful paint, although she does use paint for highlighting, but of flowers: the lily, the rose, a sunflower, mums, coreopsis and pansies. Her canvas is a crystal bowl, a vase or hand blown glass. Each work is meticulously sealed in multicolored acid-free and lignin-free Japanese rice paper, sanded to achieve a desired smoothness, then coated with non-yellowing protective sealant. The fruit of her labor usually ends in a magnificent piece of work that is stunning.
"Athena" © by Susan C. KillianyLook for Athena, at her upcoming show, a regal, majestic vase of hand blown crystal covered with pink, purple and white cosmos flowers and small dandelions, all arranged in explicit detail covered in lavender, yellow and soft green, with paper butterflies in delightful flight, and Planter’s Punch, a very heavy, thick crystal which sits on two small pedestals like a planter would. The bowl is adorned with the flowers of summer: azaleas, snow of the mountain, daisies, dandelions, willow leaves, alyssum, fern, alstromedia, coreopsis and singular mum petals. You won’t find anything like this in any crafts store.
Both Susan and Joy take great care to ensure that their work not only creates a lasting impression, but will last as works of art. No loose solder joints here. No curled paper or computer generated designs. Each piece carries the signature and imaginative originality of the artist who creates it. Each creation is a one of a kind, not to be found elsewhere.
Susan and Joy will be the featured artists at Winstanley-Roark Fine Arts' first show of the new season. The show will take place on May 24th between 4:00 and 7:00 PM. For a view of truly breathtaking and original works of glass art, this is the show to attend. Naturally, works of the gallery’s other talented artists will also be on display.
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