Anna Boothe
[1981, Sculpture]
Based in Pennsylvania
Anna Boothe’s RISD Craft Gallery
The work I will show at RISD Craft is comprised of individually crafted, one-of-a-kind sculptural vessels, flacons, “talismans,” beads and other decorative objects. With technical inspiration taken from the late 19th C. – early 20th C. French glass-casting technique known as pate de verre, all are constructed of brilliantly colored glass elements, kiln-cast from lead crystal via the lost-wax casting process, then ground, hand-polished and assembled.
Conceptually and visually, the objects elicit a sense of history and ritual. Formally, their prompts derive from antiquity and nature. The resultant composite forms interpret symbols from a variety of sources. Prominently featured in many pieces, the hand motif represents a ubiquitous cross-cultural human tool of communication through its emblematic gestures of friendship, generosity, holding, letting go, etc.
How does your current creative practice tie into your time spent at RISD?
My experience at RISD set the foundation for my ongoing practice – through challenging and helping to develop my resolve to keep at it and pursue a life grounded in the arts. Friendships made at the time keep circling back to support and strengthen what I do now. At RISD I studied Sculpture, and combined with what I learned in the great studio and art history electives I took, I don’t think I could’ve started my career with a better critical and practical overview of what lay ahead. Several of those electives were in the Glass Department; those classes sparked a connection to the material that is now central to my work.
What are some of the most important practices for your creative process?
By practices, I’m assuming the question refers to techniques I use in fabricating my work. I cast glass using the lost wax process. All of the work is made from crushed lead crystal that gets melted in one-use molds – that which is hand or machine finished/polished and assembled. Some of the work is created using a more refined version of this process: pate de verre ( late 19th C. French casting technique that traditionally relied on the casting of colored glass powders). Other than actual art-making practices, my regular and longterm yoga practice greatly informs my hands-on and conceptual approach to how I work – mostly around patience (it’s glass! it breaks all the time!) and the intensely long and tedious process I use.
Tell us about some of your main sources of inspiration.
The work that I plan to show at RISD for the October market is inspired by iconography from a variety of cultures. Many of the objects I create are extrapolations or interpretations of Buddhist symbols and forms, as well as those from ancient Mediterranean civilizations…..and from object-memories from my travels and research. A lot of the objects are an outgrowth of a large collaborative project I’ve been involved in since 2012, initiated through a Collaborative Residency at the Corning Museum of Glass. The result of that project, “Between Seeing and Knowing” – an approx. 50′ long x 11′ high installation comprised of 300+ glass elements – has been shown at Accola Griefen Gallery in Chelsea (2013), Philadelphia Art Alliance (2017), and the Philadelphia International Airport (2018).
Any recent press, exhibitions, achievements or awards you’d like to share with us?
In addition to the current exhibit I have with my collaborative partner Nancy Cohen at the Philadelphia International Airport (through July, 2018), she and I have a collaborative exhibit opening in October at the Arts Council of Princeton (NJ). In addition I’ll be participating in 2018 Fall exhibits at the Albuequerque Museum of Art, Wayne Art Center (PA) and will be showing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.
