stained women | KayBee Glass

Woman Life Freedom

kaybeedigital — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 14:13:47 +0000

I didn’t expect to cry when I sold this

At my monthly stall at Edinburgh’s Grassmarket market I was speaking to @amwhogirl, an author and lover of Scotland who was visiting from Canada. She has become a friend as she always stops by my stall when she visits Scotland, and we talk regularly on Instagram. We were whiling away the autumn day talking about travelling and absent friends and writing and mountains when I noticed a group of people looking at my Mahsa Amini picture. I said hello and they replied ‘”thank you for raising awareness”.

I asked them if they were Iranian – they were. The daughter lives in Glasgow and told me how moved she was that people in Scotland supported change in Iran, joining protests and demonstrations in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. She then said she would buy the picture, at which point her father stepped in and opened his wallet. It was extremely moving to see the reaction of the whole family to seeing their flag and the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ card with a short description of what had happened to Mahsa Amini on a market stall over 3,000 miles away from home. I was quite overcome and absolutely delighted that the picture is going to go to Iran, where it belongs.

Here’s the background:-

My youngest son is a similar age to Mahsa (Jina) Amini who died in September 2022, aged only 22. She had been arrested by the “Guidance Patrol” for wearing her hijab incorrectly and died in custody a few days later. Officials say she died of a heart attack. Many question this. Her death sparked protests across Iran with women removing their hijabs, cutting their hair and dancing in public – all of these things are prohibited for women in Iran. The slogan Woman Life Freedom has been adopted by protestors.

Why do I care about Iran?

As a teenager I spent hours listening to a vinyl 12″ of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade, and although the composer denied it, it is evocative of Arabian Nights and Sinbad. This was before the days of wireless headphones so I had to stay close to the record player, completely absorbed in the music by large orange noise-cancelling headphones. I’m glad my dad had been a hi-fi enthusiast and had some superb equipment. I created images of the colours, sounds and smells of Persia while listening and although I have never visited Iran, I hope I’m not too far off.

One of my favourite books is Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, Persepolis. This is an autobiographical account, in pictures, of the impact of the fall of the Shah of Iran and the growth of the Islamic Revolution as seen from a young girl’s perspective. It’s a wonderful book. I’m not usually a fan of graphic novels and have never really liked comics (apart from Calvin and Hobbes) but this book told so much through simple, moving, personal pictures. Marjane manages to say in a single picture what would take pages of words to convey. If you want to find out about what happened in the 1970s/1980s, I thoroughly recommend this book.

I want my art to make people think, question, want to find out more. This stained glass portrait of Mahsa Amini is framed in zinc and based on my own drawing of Mahsa with the colours of the Iranian flag behind her silhouette. She’s wearing a hijab as she was when she was arrested. Or is she? Perhaps this is her hair.

Take a look at my Shop to see if it’s still for sale but more importantly leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Woman Life Freedom

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Exhibitions; Razzle Dazzle and Whispers

kaybeedigital — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 15:50:39 +0000

Exhibitions!

The world of art exhibitions is new and unfamiliar to me, but if you are looking to buy stained glass, an exhibition would be a great place to start! I was pleased to exhibit my stained glass Amanda Gorman at the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in Leeds earlier this year as part of the Contemporary Glass Society’s Joy of Glass exhibition. This was my first in-person exhibit, and my partner and my mum endured the 5 hour journey from Edinburgh with me to deliver to and view the exhibition.

“Razzle Dazzle 5 x 5” at the Pyramid Gallery, York

The Pyramid Gallery is showing some fantastic pieces by glass artists in an exhibition called “Bedazzled”, showing the best of modern glass art. Alongside it is displaying some glass pieces that are all 5″ by 5″ in size and all between £100 and £300. You can watch a virtual tour here (opens in new tab) https://youtu.be/AAl25McjU0w The theme was entertainment and my piece is a tribute to the Abba Voyage show that opened in London recently. I’ve called it “Abba: Voyage into Glass”:-

ABBA: Voyage Into Glass

With the original image

Stories – Whispers from the Past and Present on tour

The Contemporary Glass Society, the Scottish Glass Society and the Glass Society of Ireland have opened a joint exhibition at the Trades House of Glasgow. This will be open from 14th to 22nd September and it will then travel to the Wasps Creative Academy in Inverness from 4th to 29th October 2022. It must be fate… my dad’s family is from Glasgow and my mum went to school where the Wasps Creative Academy now stands!

“What you see today is an array of exemplary exhibits from 50 artists that show the diversity of contemporary glass in all its glory” (Catherine Lowe, Chair of the Scottish Glass Society and Sue Purser-Hope, Chair of the Contemporary Glass Society)

The theme for the exhibition is inspired by Scotland’s 2022 Year of Stories. Two of my stained glass pieces have been selected – Katherine Casse – Witch? and Issobell Fergussonne – Witch? These women were tried as witches in the 1600s, based on questionable ‘evidence’. Their portraits have been painted on the outside of the library in Dalkeith, which was known as “a town where all witches were burnt”. This inspired my ‘witches’ who are both on display and for sale. Read about Scotland’s formal apology to the women and men accused of witchcraft https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60667533

The exhibition also features the Keep Well Glass Quilt Project, a collaboration between 50 glass artists from Northern Ireland – well worth a look!

I’m going to be stewarding at the exhibition next week, so I’m looking forward to seeing all of the pieces on display. Glass is surprisingly difficult to photograph so it’s always worth seeing it in person if you can.

Karen

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Suffragette Panel

kaybeedigital — Thu, 12 May 2022 13:24:51 +0000

NOW SOLD (21 May) This latest suffragette panel has slogans from the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and one of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society’s (NUWSS) leaders, Millicent Fawcett. There is a splendid bronze statue of Millicent in Parliament Square, London by Gillian Wearing showing the Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere banner. Read about her and the other suffragettes on Wikipedia. I used the suffragist colours of purple, white and green throughout. The slogans are hand painted, and the Deeds Not Words slogan is also on a hand painted flag on opaque cream glass. It’s framed in lead on three sides and has hand made hanging loops although I have it sitting on a window sill catching the light.

Beneath you can see an earlier suffragette hanging with Christabelle Pankhurst and Annie Kenney holding their Votes for Women banner. Again I used the suffragette flag colours; purple stood for loyalty and dignity, white for purity and green for hope.

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Maya Angelou panel

kaybeedigital — Thu, 12 May 2022 13:14:53 +0000

Maya Angelou’s autobiograhical “I know why the caged bird sings” was published in 1969 and I used images from Random House’s first edition along with a quote from the book to create this zinc-framed stained glass hanging with a beautiful wispy amber glass. Progress pictures below from initial sketch to cutting, to copper foiling each piece to soldering and framing. Let me know what you think in the comments.

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