Guustie Alvarado

Artist Statement
 

I am a glass addict and use glass in many different ways: crushed, cut or blown, cold, warm or hot it doesn’t matter. I also paint; painting gives me the freedom of making colors. Painting ranks almost up there with glass, and bringing glass and paint together in a unique non traditional manner is one of the ways I work

My art is many things, just like me, I am an immigrant, and being an immigrant means not quit belonging anywhere anymore. In Holland I am the American, here I am the foreigner with the funny accent.

My art is fragmented like me. Could it be possible to choose just to do flat glass, lamp work, or blowing glass, it would be the same like asking if I could choose between being American or Dutch, choosing between mother and father. One day I feel like making jewelry the other I just have to paint. Making something is a must.

To fill the kiln with chunks of glass that was found around the studio and finding the next day that a beautiful face has melted with its own character that needs a place to live gives me great pleasure. To see a hot drop of glass in the flame turning into an unique necklace is the greatest thrill, and seeing a piece of stained glass for the first time with light streaming through it is another pleasure that adds to my addiction.

My art is fragmented, yet it is cohesive because every time when I make something I put a piece of myself into it. Whether it is a necklace, a blown glass vessel, a stained glass window a fused platter or a painting. Each piece is a part of me and has a piece of me in it.