Falling Seasons

Exhibition Dates: September 19, 2016 – October 23, 2016

Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure

Over 30 botanical and nature inspired abstract images were displayed from Tilda Brown Swanson’s body of work at her first show in Des Moines since 2012. Her work has been at Octagon Center for the Arts in Ames and Chait Galleries in Iowa City for the past four years. While on the West Coast in the years prior to living in Iowa, she showed her work at a number of national art glass galleries, including Sun Gallery in the Bay Area, CA and Riley Hawk in Cleveland, OH. She has been involved with the internationally recognized Pilchuck Glass School for over 20 years, initially as a student and more recently as a juror and trustee. Her apprenticeship 20 years ago with world-renowned Italian-born master Narcisco Quagliatta, now of Mexico City, inspired and initiated her work in solid fused glass “paintings”.

The Falling Seasons Series is a set of flowers, grasses and abstract images that depict everyday objects in nature and the changing seasons in Iowa. By observing everyday grasses in the various seasons and capturing the glow of light in flowers, the transformative nature and the simple beauty of these plants becomes more clear.

Tilda Brown Swanson layers cut and powdered transparent glass and copper to explore complex lighting, reflection and those fleeting moments of beauty one glimpses in an instant or passing by a natural scene. Her fused glass is layered and heated many times to build the imagery, color and depth of a piece.