Judson Guérard

Judson Guérard is a contemporaray glass artist based near Penland School, located about 60 miles northeast of Asheville, North Carolina. He creates studio glass artwork and sculptures.

Judson Guérard about Making Blown Glass

As a material, hot glass focuses and sustains my interest in the immediate task of doing, making, while hinting and sometimes pointing in a direction away from the particular task.  It suggests a melding of hand and mind into a symbiotic process of doing and becoming blown glass art, in which each sustains or rejuvenates the other to continue the process.

The Glass Art Series

Shunyata Series
Shunyata is a Buddhist term meaning the emptiness of being.  The fused, frosted glass shards become a luminous container, useful only to act as a vessel for the emptiness which gives it its form.

River Rocks Series
Guérard’s most recent series of work has evolved from his observations of the river close to his studio and his interest in the undulations and beauty of the form of glass, that in its hot, liquid form, can flow and swirl as an eddy of water before solidifying in a form that will hold the rocks.

Chaos Series
The Chaos series is not about the transparent beauty of glass.  Rather it is about the contrast and continuity of the vessel; the interaction of color, texture and form, in the right light, can reveal the subtle, luminous beauty of glass.

Goblets
Making glass goblets, for me, is somewhat like doing calligraphy.  The repeated creation of a known form within utilitarian boundaries which serves to refine my skills and gives me focus.

Ornaments
Ornaments are a comfortable first step in glass appreciation.  The variety of shapes and colors, as well as the challenge to create new designs provide a continuous source of interest for me as a maker. Their affordability makes them appropriate gifts either for someone just becoming acquainted with glass or the experienced collector.

Art Glass Paperweight Series
This series includes tops, seashell shapes, “Saturn” shapes, anything that I happen to be “doodling” with in glass as a way of having a conversation between myself and my blowpipe as I explore ideas and techniques.  These “doodles” often evolve into new works on a larger scale or they might just stay small because I appreciate the form on the smaller scale.