New Artist Statement (5.30.20)
Carmella Jarvi | Artist Statement - Summer 2020
For years I was a painter, known best for my women in water paintings. In 2011, I started the transition to kiln glass. It’s no coincidence what I created during my first 2010 McColl Center for Art + Innovation residency — painting lots of abstract water — was what led me to glass. (I’d always had a secret lust for art glass:) For over seven years, I’ve perfected my glass skills and aesthetic… while learning more about creative placemaking and public art.
During my 2018 AiR at The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts & Sciences, I started painting abstract water again. In early 2019, I created a temporary exterior glass faux water feature at Mercy Hospital, explored water paintings as well as the healing connections of water… all during the 2019 Atrium Health AiR at MCAI.
Water is the root and driving passion for much of my art.
Mostly, I can be found in the glass studio using different colors/types of Bullseye Glass combined in electric kilns, creating new studio glass pieces. I have a line of small glass, and often have commissions/bigger projects going. I make glass prototypes to be scaled and translated into other materials for public art applications.
My glass has many firings and layers, with different cold working in between. The main goal of the work is to capture water — in an abstract form or expression. I utilize kiln heat and gravity to push the glass, creating rich color, depth, and suggesting movement. I have also worked with glassblowers to scale/achieve a different look.
(Excited that thanks to a Regional Artist Project Grant from Arts & Science Council & NC Arts Council funding, I’ll be visiting Bullseye Studio — the fabrication arm of Bullseye Glass — in Portland, OR later in 2020.)
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My pieces are really paintings with glass.
Equally important is that I have been creating and managing projects that tie design to a place through dynamic site-specific works for years. My glass and water-inspired public art transform spaces. The projects on the website highlight my aesthetic through a variety of media and show how my designs affect an area.
My work has a powerful, placemaking impact that connects with all kinds of people.
Water is universal, and this abstract approach to my studio glass and public artwork means there are a number of entry points for viewers. Circles, color, light, and even movement are important elements of the installations.
Since 2018, I have been involved with urban planning in Charlotte — attending events/training around urban development and Center for Active Design, as well as volunteering with the Urban Development Ordinance Advisory Committee. This has informed how I work and consider space. (I just won a 2020 City of Charlotte Creative Placemaking Neighborhood Grant. Covid-19 changed details, but the project is happening this summer/fall.)
In 2019, I worked with five other creatives [including Fanjoy Labrenz; Sally Fanjoy & James Labrenz], the Hickory Museum of Art, and the Corning Foundation/Corning Optical Communications on an exhibition about the creative process, as well as creating a final, site-specific collaborative installation at HMA — using projections through Corning glass fibers.
Our final collaborative piece is a nod to how I will continue to explore new media with glass, water, light, and movement to transform specific spaces in the future. It’s been a secret dream of mine to capture moving light/water/glass on video. I got closer in our collaboration than ever before. (My recent Creative Renewal Fellowship - through the Arts & Science Council - is funding digital equipment for this new direction plus a 2020 visit to Corning Museum of Glass — for a class with a master glass artist and to explore their vast glass collections!)
Whether studio glass, vinyl, traditional exterior materials (like mural paint and cement applications), digital projections, or some combination of these, I am very excited about creating more glass and public art!
Want to know more? Follow me @carmella.jarvi on Instagram.