Paula Rylat is an esteemed American glass artist living in West Wales. We are proud that she has selected Utopia as the gallery to have her last solo exhibition before retiring.
Rylatt's intense studies of nature create dynamic responses capturing the energy and movement of the observed. She is particularly inspired by the contrasts of change within constancy of trees and the sea. Her chosen material is clear, fused glass as it evokes the solid, yet ethereal qualities of her subject.
Crest
"There is something of those dynamics in my use of clear, fused glass; a solid material that looks like it will melt away, a ghost image of a place that allows the 'here and now' to be seen through it."
“I live a quiet and simple life in the hills of mid-coast Wales, and my work reflects that. I am particularly (but not solely) inspired by trees and the sea, which appear to have very different dynamics but which contain similar contrasts. Trees seem so constant, solid and still; silent witnesses, yet they are always moving, in growth or death or in response to their environment. The sea on the other hand appears to be in constant motion and change, slippery churning, but from an airplane waves breaking on a beach don't appear to move at all. They look frozen. The sea level turmoil is just energy passing through a fluid mass.
"There is something of those dynamics in my use of clear, fused glass; a solid material that looks like it will melt away, a ghost image of a place that allows the 'here and now' to be seen through it."
Coastal Wind
There Was a Time When
Glass interactive installation and poem
