Alison Schaeffler-Murphy

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Alison Schaeffler-Murphy’s love affair with glass began while earning her art education degree at Florida State University when she decided to take an off-campus class “just for fun.” During that time, she realized that glass offered the artist a clarity and brilliance of color unavailable in any other artistic medium. She recognized thatthe natural luminosity provided by glass’s refractive qualities is truly enchanting because art glass dynamically changes within the realm of existing ambient light!

These days Alison sees fusing with dichroic glass as even more fascinating! This ‘space-age’ glass reflects the light of one color while also transmitting a spectrum of other hues. Dichroic glass appears differently depending upon the angle at which it is viewed. For this reason, at exhibitions and shows, viewers of Alison’s dichroic pieces are encouraged to pick up the glass, hold it up to the light, and move it around to see the alluring qualities of her glass designs.

While glass-art offers the perfect ‘canvas’ through which to express herself, Alison has also been broadly involved with the arts. Achievement of graduate diplomas in both art history and art museum administration have provided opportunities for Alison to work in various roles with non-profit arts organizations, museums, and art galleries. Prior to grad school, Alison enjoyed employment as an art teacher at public and private schools, at art festivals, and at museums. Some of her other roles have included serving as fine arts consultant, art appraisal researcher, manager of collections, chairman of art shows, art juror and judge, art gallery director, and curator of art. But these days, Alison is pleased to be playing in the studio full-time and is pleased to be exploring and manifesting her creative ideas.