SPRINGFIELD – Kathleen Howard Piper creates a different kind of glass art. Combined with wood, ceramics, paintings on canvas and other mediums, she creates pieces that often feel spiritual in nature.
One of the tricky details about displaying any piece of art is ensuring the lighting shows it off at its best. Piper’s pieces bring an extra challenge in being displayed because some are transparent and would look wonderful on a window—but that is hard to show off in a gallery space.
Pieces like “Ghost Mask” are striking in person because the viewer is able to walk around past the three-dimensional mask and see the facets of the clear class that would otherwise be invisible in a photo.
“Glass allows me to work with the play of light and dimensionality,” said Piper. “Many pieces take on a different appearance depending on the angle and direction of the light. … My painting may be traditional, but often the painted surface becomes thickly dimensional, or may be itself broken into facets and levels.”
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Piper didn’t start out as a glass artist.
“My first art memories are, of course, being a toddler playing with crayons, chalk, water colors, pipe cleaners, modeling clay, and mud,” she said. “In kindergarten, I got to paint with calcimine colors, and at 5, I was the little girl who was painting in a window display at Marshall Fields in Chicago.”
She was taught to “experiment fearlessly” by her first art teacher, Eula Long. When Piper was 13, her family went to Europe. They went to museums together, but on Saturdays, she went alone.
As the family toured cathedrals, she noticed how the stained glass windows changed dramatically due to the shifting of light. She saw Finnish glass, and traveled to Venice, seeing the glassblowers at Murano firsthand. She went on to pursue college, family, painting and showing her art, though family life kept her busy and forced her to take a break.
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When asked what inspires Piper, she said, “I have had times in my life when I was so troubled that beauty was the only quality that held me on the planet—I had given up on the rest. The idea of causing somebody, when they see a work of mine, to feel the way they do when they see nature itself—that’s what inspires me. … I’m interested in being the person that can make someone’s day a little better by giving them a shot of beauty when they need one.”
In 1975, Piper’s husband was diagnosed with MS, she started painting again and became involved in the arts community. In 1993 her husband passed, and five years later she moved to Eugene with her new partner.
Piper was busy in the arts community, taking classes and learning new skills at Eugene Glass Guild and U of O Craft Center. Prior to Covid, she was showing at Tsunami Books, Core Star Cultural Center, Eugene Holiday Market, New Zone, the Art of Glass, and many other venues—some which are now out of business. During Covid, she, like many artists, took a hiatus. Her show at the Island Park Gallery in May 2024 was the first show after her break.
One of the highlights of the May show featured “The Tears of the Gods Arrive with Their Messenger” a large assemblage (imagine a three-dimensional collage) of kiln formed and blown glass. “This work is dedicated to our many service organizations which deal with difficult human situations,” the card hanger reads.
It is a striking piece valued at $3,500 that the artist is extending as a long-term loan or outright donation to the right venue.
Because of the subject matter related to the art, Piper, “would like to make this work available to a healthcare or human services organization.”
The sculpture depicts Iris, messenger of the Greek gods with an ewer of the water from the River Styx, used to detect and punish oath breakers. She flies with her staff of office, the caduceus. Teardrops surround the goddess.
“The piece embodies the idea that there are human situations over which, though they must indeed be dealt with, even the Gods will grieve,” she said.
Piper will show at Island Park Gallery at Willamalane Adult Activity Center in August. Until then, you can find her smaller works at Tsunami Books in Eugene and at [email protected].
Sarina Dorie is the arts writer for The Chronicle.