The Japanese term Wabi-Sabi describes exactly how Norma Geddes got started and what this Virginia artisan is doing: creating beauty from imperfection. Come meet the artist at the gallery during the Historic Downtown Mall’s First Friday celebration on October 4, from 5-8pm.
Geddes discovered glass art quite by chance. She was renovating her kitchen and had an “imperfect” moment with the contractor when he said it was time to pick out the textured glass for the cabinets. She said, “Anything would be an improvement…I don’t care… just pick out something you think would work.” THEN, the words that changed her life, "Pick out your own dang glass.” It took just a few minutes to pick out “the dang glass” and as she was paying for it, Norma saw a small sign on the counter that said, “stained glass classes starting.” “Well, I thought, never done that before…and I signed up on the spot!”
Within 2 months Norma had converted a two-car garage into a lovely studio with a door facing a walled garden, a window that opened, and a skylight. A few years later, she completed 50 years of working in the healthcare field and became a full-time glass artist.
Much of Geddes’s art incorporates what some would call “discards” – broken pieces of blown glass, sea glass tumbled in many different oceans, sheets of glass cut into pieces – something made from something broken apart…Wabi-Sabi.
“I was in my studio yesterday, today, and I look forward to tomorrow. I have found my bliss.”
To learn more about Norma’s glasswork, visit: www.normageddesglass.com
For additional information, contact Genevieve Story at 434-972-9500. The gallery’s web site is www.cvillearts.org. The C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery, located on the historic Downtown Mall in Charlottesville is open 7 days a week: Monday-Thursday 10-6; Friday & Saturday 10-7 and Sunday 12-5.
C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery - Creative Works by Virginia Artists.
Comments