TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

Artist Produces A Touch Of Glass

Cheryl Bentley/SUNCOAST

Fused glass artist Steve Tagg says his work is meant to be touched. His work is on display Jan. 10 and 11 in Dunedin.

ADVERTISEMENT

By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: January 7, 2009

It was a work of art with an unusual invitation.

"Touch me!" read a notice under Steven Tagg's fused glass landscape at the Tarpon Springs Art Association's show in December. The landscape won Best of Show honors in the event.

Tagg's art of layered glass scenes is highly touchable. That is only one of the characteristics of Tagg's work that caused Lynn Whitelaw, director of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, to name him the Best of Show winner at the show. Whitelaw notes Tagg's painterly, as opposed to linear, quality is unusual in fused glass creations.

"He creates an art work that transforms the Florida landscape with unique technique and style that engages the viewer," Whitelaw says.

His technique of using opalescent glass in his fused glass creations is rare for landscapes in that medium, Tagg notes. His art is meant to be hung on a wall, unlike most fused glass creations. Those are on transparent glass and intended to be hung so that light can shine through them.

Fused glass describes glass that has been fired in a kiln. Tagg individually fires layers of ground glass, called frit, at 1,350 degrees to achieve the color and effect he wants. A Tagg piece can go through as many as a dozen 10-hour firings before it is complete.

The firings create uneven surfaces that give the glass its touchable quality.

Tactile man

For Tagg, an admitted tactile person, this is one of his work's most attractive effects. He remembers a blind woman in Michigan, where he winters, who ran her hands over one of his landscapes and commented on each element.

"She could feel the difference in the tree trunks, and tree leaves, and the reflection on the water, and the shadows, and the grass," Tagg recalls. His work allowed her to have her own experience of art, rather than having someone tell her about it, he notes.

Tagg developed his fused glass techniques by combining his former hobbies of making stained glass works and creating landscapes in pastels. He calls his fused glass landscapes "glasScapes."

In the last few years, Tagg has ventured into using images of people in fused glass. "I'm more confident in my ability in landscapes, but I am more challenged and enjoy doing people just as much," he says.

When he took up fused glass, in 2000, the only tool Tagg could find was a screen through which the ground glass pieces could be sifted. He has run across other tools for sale since then, but he no longer needs them. In a process that took him two years, Tagg invented his own tools for applying the glass by hand.

He declines to describe the tools, saying they are at the heart of his individualistic art.

A departure

The role of artist is a departure from his former career as human resource director at First Michigan Bank Holding Company. Tagg took early retirement from there in 1999.

"I grew weary of problems that had no end," he says of his years in human resource departments.

His art gives him an emotional high his job did not. "When I get that colored glass in my hands, I feel like I'm dancing with nature," Tagg observes.

Opening the kiln after the glass has been fired is the dance's climax. "There's that rush to see if I've actually been able to convey that feeling when I was creating," he says.

Studio completed

Tagg recently completed his studio in his winter home in Holiday, thereby enabling him to create his glass work in Holiday as well as Michigan, where he summers.

He is never far from the memory of his grandmother Bertha McKee when he works. McKee purchased art materials for him when he was a child growing up in Allegan, Mich. Every morning when in Michigan, he eats his breakfast on dishes inherited from McKee. "Her spirit is with me," he says.

Tagg will exhibit his work at the 12th annual Downtown Dunedin Art Festival, in downtown Dunedin. The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, and Sunday, Jan. 11. Tagg can be contacted by e-mail at stevetagg@msn.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT