Evelyn Dunstan
ABOUT EVELYN DUNSTAN
|
Evelyn Dunstan works from her country home studio in Pukekohe. I had the pleasure of meeting her there recently to view some of her incredible works and learn more about her artistic process. Evelyns' journey through her art has seen her travel to distant, far off places - to learn and to teach. To share her gift with glass and to engage and inspire others. Her incredibly extensive CV (linked) speaks volumes of the depth and breadth of her talent.
Coming from 25 years in commercial art - primarily illustration, design, graphics in the advertising, photography, publishing and print industries, the last 13 as the art director for a publishing company. Combining a full time career with raising four children meant interests were woven into life: Agriculture, horticulture and sculpture combined through landscaping and learning the inherent qualities of ‘making’ materials and a life long passion with clay. The need to develop her own expression through art and more family time resulted in the change of career to a full time sculptural artist in 2002 with a drive to learn new materials and skills. Stained glass led to where she found her niche with lost-wax glass casting in 2003 - her ultimate sculptural medium, combining colour with light, depth and dimension and an endless source of possibilities and technical challenges. From her beginning in glass she avoided the status quo in terms of direction, technique and subject matter. Being initially unaware of existing glass and artists and working in isolation set her apart with what she wanted to create and how, allowing her work to take on its own direction without preconceived limitations or influence. Evelyn enjoys passing on her unique approach to the lost-wax process teaching in New Zealand from 2006 and overseas since 2011, in Murano, Italy; Istanbul, Turkey; Australia at The Australian National University and Canberra Glassworks, Canberra and Perth and at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning NY and Urban Glass NYC, NY and Pittsburgh Glass, PA in the USA. The stimulation and interaction of other artists ideas and challenges is a time to learn, develop and share new approaches. Collaborations and attending other workshops has furthered her knowledge and in different glass mediums: Fusing, engraving, sandblasting, painting, flamework, hot casting and glassblowing along with attending NZSAG (NZ) Ausglass (Australia) and GAS (USA) conferences. Using a language that speaks of our connections, visualised through the characteristics of flora and fauna, her focus continues to be in developing the ideas that also encompass researching methods and experimenting with techniques further. Her work is displayed in exhibitions, public and private collections around the world and we are very pleased to represent Evelyn with select pieces at Quay Gallery. |
Artist Statement:
As artists our singular concern is to express the influences that compel us to create, but as humans we must look for common concerns, connections to our fellow human beings, our shared spaces, our environment, our humanity.
The cast glass I first envisioned was initially subdued by the influence of existing styles, techniques and the preconceived limitations of what was possible with the medium, but conceptually influences came from art history, metal, glass, ceramics and my immediate environment. Lifestyle and passions combined with the interaction of connections and relationships seemed important, looking back, as much as moving forward, held sway.
The form of a vessel, an amphora, a challis, a tea pot, speak to me of containment of ideas, a method of moving ideas from one place to another, the structural integrity and genetic character through vines and leaves crossing over, life supporting life, being supported, a progression of cycles through the seasons of time, common concerns that connect us all, woven, transparent, fragile, in need of protecting.
I often toss around the concepts of the contained portrayed as the containment, in a similar manner to transparency of glass depicting through faceless masks what we wish to portray or cannot hide.
As artists our singular concern is to express the influences that compel us to create, but as humans we must look for common concerns, connections to our fellow human beings, our shared spaces, our environment, our humanity.
The cast glass I first envisioned was initially subdued by the influence of existing styles, techniques and the preconceived limitations of what was possible with the medium, but conceptually influences came from art history, metal, glass, ceramics and my immediate environment. Lifestyle and passions combined with the interaction of connections and relationships seemed important, looking back, as much as moving forward, held sway.
The form of a vessel, an amphora, a challis, a tea pot, speak to me of containment of ideas, a method of moving ideas from one place to another, the structural integrity and genetic character through vines and leaves crossing over, life supporting life, being supported, a progression of cycles through the seasons of time, common concerns that connect us all, woven, transparent, fragile, in need of protecting.
I often toss around the concepts of the contained portrayed as the containment, in a similar manner to transparency of glass depicting through faceless masks what we wish to portray or cannot hide.
