400 YEAR-OLD-GLASS

Over the past few years, I expanded my interest in visual distortion, this time using antique hand-blown glass to provide a new perspective. The project began over ten years ago in The Netherlands when I noticed the fractured and faceted appearance of a local carnival as seen through the 17th-century windows of the Delft City Hall. Inspired, I began capturing more images through original glass windows in other European buildings from the 16th and 17th centuries. This exploration continued in Houston with “restoration” glass manufactured in Germany using 400-year-old methods. Designing and building a system for placing this glass between my subjects and the camera lens allowed me to deconstruct still lifes, portraits, musical instruments, Houston cityscapes, political landmarks and more. See More of this work.

During this exploration, I’ve wondered if the “faceting” I’ve observed looking through centuries-old windows could have influenced the artistic development of the cubism movement (1907 – 1918). What I’ve seen in the 2020s was certainly observable by the artists of the early 1900s looking through similar windows. The origin of this “faceting” in cubist paintings remains a mystery to art historians.