February 27, 2009

Glass artist Cappy Thompson to visit campus

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The School of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University Carbondale welcomes glass artist Cappy Thompson as part of the Visiting Artist program.

Thompson will visit campus Monday through Thursday, March 2-5, with a public lecture at 7 p.m. on March 3 at the University Museum Auditorium. The lecture explores, “My Vivid Imagination: The Painted Glass of Cappy Thompson.”

Thompson uses reverse glass painting techniques that date back to the Middle Ages, giving her artwork a timelessness and charm that immediately appeals -- particularly so because her subject matter draws from Aesop’s Fables, Greek myths and Hindu stories as well as elements of modern daily life. Critics describe her works as “picture-poems.”

In addition to the glass paintings, Thompson also creates painted glass vessels -- vases, bowls, and amphorae -- of extraordinary beauty.

Thompson’s teaching credits include the Rochester Institute of Technology, Canberra School of Art in Australia, Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, Wash., and the Penland School of Crafts.

Her work includes public commissions, such as a massive piece at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The Museum of Arts and Designs (New York City), the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, N.Y.), the Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Va.), and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (Sapporo, Japan), among others, hold her artwork in their permanent collections. In addition, Thompson exhibits her work in some of the most prestigious venues in the country, including the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, Pa.), Habatat Galleries in Boca Raton, Fla., and elsewhere, and as part of a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit.

For more information on Cappy Thompson, visit www.cappythompson.com.

For more information about the School of Art and Design at SIUC, visit www.artanddesign.siu.edu.