Jesse Olwen Stained Glass: Wrapping New Flesh on the Bones of An Ancient Craft
About this episode
Jesse Olwen discusses his stained glass art, exploring themes of memory and contemporary culture.
In a heartbreakingly dark and beautiful panel depicting the Statue of Liberty afloat in a pond amongst lily pads, water grasses and small frogs, Jesse Olwen reveals his inner sadness about the state of affairs in the US and wider world today. Though the most recent, this is not the only one of his works to reference Memento Mori – a Latin phrase meaning, remember that you have to die. Olwen is a stained glass artist based in Montreal, working at the intersection of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary visual culture. His work reinterprets historic techniques through modern subject matter, exploring themes of memory, symbolism, and transformation. Through glass, he aims to create pieces that feel both timeless and culturally immediate. States Olwen: "I don't know yet how my work can impact viewers on a large scale, but I do know that working with stained glass offers a unique way to express my message while also pushing the boundaries of the medium, which may be enough to hook some people. I want to show what stained glass can do and break it out of stereotypes that limit it. I want to show people that stained glass can exist in equal respect to other conventional artworks…
People in this episode
Host: Shawn Waggoner
Guest: Jesse Olwen
Topics covered
- stained glass
- artistic expression
- memory
- symbolism
- transformation
- contemporary art
Keywords
- stained glass
- Jesse Olwen
- art
- Montreal
- Memento Mori
- craftsmanship
- symbolism
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Statue of Liberty, Memento Mori
Places: Montreal
More episodes of Talking Out Your Glass podcast
- John Luebtow: Perfect Investigations of Beauty and Abstraction
- Cedric Mitchell: At the Intersection of Craft, Design and Culture
- C. Matthew Szösz: Traversing Unpredicted Landscapes
- Davide Salvadore: Keeping Murano at the Heart of the International Glass Community
- Studio Glass Pioneers Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace: Inventing Processes to Realize Ideas
- Documenting Laura Donefer's Glass Fashion Show
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