In 1984, on the cusp of the computer age, Susan Glasgow emerged from the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design.
“The minute I graduated, my degree was obsolete,” she says. “I knew how to sew, so instead of going straight to grad school, I opened a dressmaker and alterations business.”
Glasgow worked as a seamstress for three years before moving with her husband to Columbia, MO, where she opened another sewing shop. After nine years, she decided to get back into art. She worked in sculpture and mixed media for several years before transitioning to glass. Today, she is the artist behind the Communal Nest, a 12-foot-wide, 3-foot-tall glass exhibit on display through August 26 at Craft Alliance’s Gallery in the Kranzberg Arts Center (501 N. Grand).
“It’s about women, and shelter, and journey,” says Glasgow. “I decided to incorporate objects that were both as beautiful as I could make, and as ugly as I could make.”
The idea for the nest was conceived in 2008 at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, where Glasgow was working as a resident artist. She incorporated glass twigs made by women from the nearby Bethlehem Haven Women’s Shelter. Every time the exhibit travels to a new location, Glasgow reaches out to the local community to acquire similar additions to the nest. She has received glass twigs from artists as close to home as St. Louis and as far away as Australia.
Glasgow travels with the exhibit, installing it herself in each new location. By soliciting new twigs and teaching glass workshops, Glasgow tries to interact directly with the members of every community she and the nest visit. When she returns to St. Louis to take down the nest in late August, Glasgow will hold a three-day workshop called Imagery and Text on Glass.
By far Glasgow’s largest project, the Communal Nest has posed all sorts of logistical challenges the artist had never considered.
“It’s one of those things that if you’d really thought it through, you never would’ve gotten it done,” she admits. “It really became a community effort the more I got into it. I would run into a hurdle, and help was there.”
Although Glasgow started off funding the project herself, the costs surpassed $10,000 within the first few months. Package, shipping, and storage expenses can exceed $3,000 each time the nest is moved. Eventually, the Bullseye Glass Company in Portland, OR and the Pittsburgh Glass Center chipped in to provide materials and support. The exhibit has since been featured in galleries throughout the country.
While glass is Glasgow’s specialty, she still relies on skills from her days as a seamstress.
“I treat glass exactly the way I treated fabric,” she says. “All of my sculptures start out as flat sheet glass. When all the components have been shaped, I stitch them together. So the work not only deals with domestic expectations, but also uses a domestic craft.”
Glasgow’s other work includes glass replications of common domestic items: coffeepots, aprons, dustpans, and dishes.
“All of my work has to do with women,” she says. “Women in the household, women in the kitchen, and women in the bedroom. The focus of my work has always been to make it beautiful and draw the viewer in, and as the viewer gets closer to the work, they realize it has a more complex message.”
Part of that message, according to Glasgow, is the evolving (or not) role of women in society.
“I’m a product of the ’50s, so my work sort of reflects my upbringing and the expectations of women in the ’50s,” she says. “In many ways, they have not changed all that much. So I reflect on what is perceived as a simpler time but really had a long list of its own complexities.”
Glasgow was born in Wisconsin in 1958 and grew up in Duluth, MN. She holds a BFA in design from the University of Iowa, and currently lives with her husband in Colombia, MO where she also has a private studio.
“Even though my work seems really happy and nostalgic, I’m hoping that upon closer reflection it examines a false sense of simplicity,” she says. “The Communal Nest is a continuation of that.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge posed by The Communal Nest, however, has been elemental.
“There’s always a little breakage,” Glasgow says. “But, you know, it’s glass.”
For more information, visit craftalliance.org or taylorglasgow.com.
