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What I Did On My Summer Vacation
07.09.2009 Mithun, Thought Bursts
Ron van der Veen, AIA, LEED AP, Mithun Principal reflects on the great deal he learned while teaching at the Pilchuck Glass School during Symposium 2.5 Sustaining Creativity.
Don’t let the hippy, casual atmosphere fool you. This place is a serious international center for glass artists. I had the privilege last month of teaching at the Pilchuck Glass School for a week. My assignment was to focus on sustainability and the connection between art and architecture, but the significance of the week for me was much more as a learner.« All newsTo be quite honest, other than the work of Dale Chihuly, I arrived at the campus relatively unfamiliar with the glass art movement that exploded in the 60’s. I quickly learned that I was teaching with some of the international stars and patriarchs of glass and printmaking, and the students weren’t just there for a week in the woods.
I had the particular pleasure of collaborating throughout the time with Paul Marioni, who was one of the early pioneers of Pilchuck. Paul’s intelligence and creativity are contagious as well as his passion to teach creativity. A few of his assignments included 10 drawings in 10 minutes, purposely creating something visually ugly, weird paper folding and what he called “the big idea”. In this exercise he asked the class to come up with a huge concept that was uninhibited by economics and other restraints. The highlight of my week was definitely Paul’s class on glass casting. Paul cast one of his molds and then we got the opportunity to play in the sand and create our own glass experiments.
During the week we had a steady stream of the “Who’s Who” of Pilchuck alumni coming through to discuss their work and the history of glass art in America. At each meal we were treated to visually stunning presentations of the vast expanses of glass creativity. In addition, many of these artists led workshops where they would share their techniques with all the students.
If you plan to come to Pilchuck and really want to integrate into the fabric of creativity, be prepared to live on very little sleep. The hot shops are blaring music and exuding energy and activity 20 hours a day. You don’t want to miss the late night glass blowing where you experience the really amazing choreography of glass artists collaborating on numerous pieces simultaneously. It seemed not matter how determined I was to hit the sack, this spectacle stopped me in my tracks to just watch mesmerized for long periods of time. Hard play is as much a part of Pilchuck as the serious work. I had heard many urban legends about the wild life at Pilchuck before coming and I am now convinced they are all true.
In my teaching role, I gave 3 presentations. The first was on Biophilia and man’s inherent connection to nature. The second was on how artists and architects collaborate together, and the last was on sustainability in architecture and design. During the week we also had the students work on a few projects that were architecturally oriented. I was particularly interested in the artists seeing opportunities to integrate art into creating building components and systems in architecture. One assignment was to design a sun-shading device for a building with glass art. Another was to design an artistic way for water to come from the roof of a building to a bio-swale and detention pond. The creative ideas that came out of these brainstorming sessions with the artists were truly inspiring.
As I reflect on the week, one important lesson resonates with me: As we tackle the great design issues of the 21st century, it is vital that we work intimately with artists to bring beauty, creativity and humanity to (very often complex) design challenges The artist students that converged at Pilchuck last month were all serious about sustainability and the pressing issues of our time. Even more important their ideas were/are relevant and we need to listen to them… and create art together.