Green Vase ‘Seagrass III’ by Roberta Mason

This green vase is part of the delightful new series by West Wales-based glass artist Roberta Mason.

Inspired by the ocean plant that waves to the beat of the tides and provides a home and food to a myriad of sea creatures.

Not only an absolutely gorgeous piece of art glass but a piece with a poignant message about the future of our seas.

A perfect gift for sea lovers everywhere, this is a strong statement piece that works well as a powerful centrepiece.

Artist’s Statement

I’m a bit mad about seagrass. It’s a wonderful, often overlooked ecosystem in our ocean environment which plays host to a myriad of wonderful creatures, as well as sequestering carbon, reducing pollution and being remarkable as the only flowering seaplant. Each work is made in a 2 stage process which starts with making canes to create the sense, colour and texture of the seagrass from an underwater perspective. These canes are cleaned, placed, and picked up on a blowing iron, then melted and overlaid with further canes to create depth. Each piece is then free-blown to its final, organic form. The bottoms are ground and polished to finish. The process itself ensures that each piece made is unique. This collection has been made with repurposed and re-melted waste glass, part of the sustainability initiatives within my practice.

Green Vase – Artist

Roberta Mason is the hugely talented artist behind these blue vessels and a burgeoning talent within her field. Her work is strongly influenced by water, and her kiln-forming and hot glass techniques create masterpieces that explore perspectives and our relationship with the environment.

Roberta’s first exhibition was in 2010, and her latest works are on display at the Glass Pyramid Gallery in York. By attending Master Classes in glass, Roberta is constantly expanding her knowledge and strengthening and perfecting her techniques. An artist with unstoppable energy, Roberta was highly commended in 2015 by the Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers. In 2016, she won a scholarship to attend her Master’s Classes with Dr. Gerry King.

Roberta’s relationship with glass and water could best be described as a passionate love affair. By understanding the properties of glass, its opacity, and transparency, Roberta creates works of art that contain depth and inner narratives. Taking her inspiration from Aristotle and his quote “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance,” Roberta is an artist, who is constantly evolving, her latest interest being in 3D Design.

Artist Statement

It’s been such a strange year of change, isolation and separation, so in the midst of this new, temporary normal, I found myself thinking about the state of the world, the sometimes miraculous healing of wild places as we withdrew and the beauty of nature. I have been inspired by the conservation messaging of ‘we care for the things we love’ and the people who work tirelessly and passionately to show us why we should care.  The first of my two new collections for 2020, Old Ice is inspired by the beautiful and evocative aerial images of Greenland by the artist and advocate, Roger Fishman. I was moved to make this work when I saw his images and researched the accelerating loss of ice mass due to climate change, which is now exposing ice from the last ice age. The beautiful colours, forms and patterns seem to belie the reality.

I have used forms based on water vessels as a conduit for the imagery, as we often seem to use the earth and her oceans as a commodity…let’s change that…

“Every day is a new opportunity to begin again” HH the Dalai Lama & AB Desmond Tutu

#bethechange #climatechange #oldice #lasticeage #ice #oceaninspired #scienceandart