Nearly 4,000 years ago, fused glass- now a rare technique among glass artisans- was created in Egypt and Persia. The ancients valued it as semi-precious, since it was painstaking and difficult to produce. Its beauty rests in the layering of color and pattern, resulting in a vibrant interplay of form and light. Repeated cutting, layering, fusing, cooling, and re-melting produce unique pieces with incredible depth and variety.

Barbara Galazzo fuses much more than glass, melding light and color into a kaleidoscope of movement. Barbara was a professional dancer for 16 years, and her work reflects the discipline, the precision and the artistry of a ballerina. Colors and patterns leap across the glass, balancing her passion and inspiration in delicate harmony.

Barbara's latest work is the creation of vessels, which combine fusing with slumping flat glass in a kiln. Glass pieces are cut to a design, with two or more layers of glass fused together to form a whole. Once fused, each piece is then refired and slumped over or into a mold to achieve its final shape. Precise cutting and layering of up to five colors of glass in each pattern block produces harmonious patterns and depth, and can result in work made from hundreds of individual pieces, as in the 'Collage' wall mural.

Techniques used include kilncarving, in which the glass is fused over a shaped relief to give the appearance of being embossed or carved, and sagging, which employs gravity to shape the molten glass. Fusers rarely use sagging as it requires a great deal of attention to the kiln and precision in the melting process. The result is much like blown glass, with an elongation and distortion of patterns; it is especially effective with the kilncarved shapes that stretch against a backdrop of translucent colors.

Barbara has been exhibited in galleries throughout the U.S. and commissioned for installations. She is a member of the Glass Art Society, the American Craft Council, and a founding partner of the Brooklyn Artisans Gallery. This July, Barbara enters the wholesale craft marketplace at the 2002 Summer American Craft Council Wholesale Show in Baltimore, Maryland. She has been selected to appear in the Mentor Program, one of only a handful to receive the honor each year. Her Mentor in the program is Lynn Goodman, an accomplished potter and veteran of ACC shows. "Barbara’s work is beautiful, and I’m very glad the ACC has permitted me to assist her in entering the wholesale market," said Ms. Goodman.

artist’s statement

My work is a celebration of color. I use the discipline of precise glass-fusing techniques and the artistry of flowing lines and colors to create pattern and movement. The work uses a minimal aesthetic vocabulary to hint at broader concepts and ideas.

My inspiration comes from a variety of sources, beginning with the power of color. The further influence of ancient pictographs, patterns and texture formations allows me to produce a feeling of movement that recalls my days as a professional dancer.

It is my desire to make beautiful objects that inspire personal memories in their owners as colors and shapes are reflected into, around and through the work.