Kathleen Elliot

Glass artist Kathleen Elliot crafts natural forms that explore and blur the distinctions between reality and artifice. “What is real?” she asks. “How do you know? After three decades of studying philosophy and alternative spirituality, these two questions are the foundation of my artwork.” Elliot addresses these questions through intricate, naturalistic sculptures of plants, including edible, inedible, and, sometimes, questionably edible varieties, as in her sculpture of a plant whose fruit is composed of stitched-together scraps of soda and beer cans. In other works, on the contrary, fruit, shoots, and leaves appear heavy with life. Elliot came to glassmaking casually, beginning with beads and gradually honing her technique, eventually enrolling at the famed Pilchuck Glass School (which counts Dale Chihuly among its founders). It is there that she developed the complex, sophisticated style for which she is celebrated today.