The End REsult

Blown away series 3 episode 9

Photo Credit: Blown Away Series and Marble Media Official.

One of the hardest challenges of the competition was the Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself challenge. John Sharvin, Minhi, and I went dark and deep on this one. It was also the moment we were evaluated by contemporary artist and Blown Away Season 2 Champion Elliot Walker.

The End Result started as a fear of dying a failure, but as I was working on the piece I began to think about my friends and members of the glass community who we all thought were on top of the world, but they succumbed to their darkness. What we see on the outside is not always a true reflection of what is going on internally. As artists, we sacrifice ourselves and our financial security and lay our emotions and souls on the line for every piece we put out in public. We commit everything in order to attempt to have a stable situation, while dumping everything into our work.

The colors and texture of the bird are inspired by the colors and textures of Van Gogh - the artist most associated with my illustrated fear. The nest is meant to look like as if a heart had been pulled out of the body, bit by bit, and used to build a nest. The form begins resemble a crown of thorns - an image meant to reference sacrifice.