Lucy Lyon
Artist processes
I have always felt that, even though we are all meeting up with each other and interacting in twos or threes or crowds, each of us is essentially alone. That brings up a bit of melancholy but it also makes the individual unique and therefore very important.
I started working in glass simply because it is a very seductive material. I have chosen to focus on sculpting figures. What interests me most is trying to convey the intellectual and emotional state of the individuals in my pieces, relying on subtle gestures, a turn of the head or twist of the hips, to express the figure’s state of mind. For a long time I was paring down the environment of the figures to simple geometric forms. Most recently I am working on softening those forms yet keeping them simple and obvious. Refining the figure has absorbed much of my time. Throughout the years, I have tackled the technical challenges of increasingly larger work. The increased scale allows for more nuance of expression in each sculpture.
I have also cast figures in bronze. The contrast between the metal and glass is fascinating, but I believe that I will always revere glass with a sense of wonder. It holds the light, like the soul.
Lucy Lyon, New Mexico
Lucy Lyon was born in 1947 in Colorado. She graduated in 1971 from Antioch College, earning a B.A. in philosophy, and was further educated at Pilchuck Glass School, WA. She has taken a number of workshops across the country from well-known glass artists, and has cited Edward Hopper as a source of inspiration throughout her career. With a spellbinding combination of technical prowess and spontaneous gesture, Lyon transforms her intimate glass tableaux into atmospheric settings whose characters’ stories, stances, and placement are open to viewer interpretation. Lyon’s subjects are elegantly depicted in postures of contemplation or social engagement, suggesting attitudes of solitude and interaction. The figures themselves effectively express a state of mind through gesture.
Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, FL
Ringling Museum. Sarasota, FL
Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, MI
Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah WI
2013/14 Sandy Hook Memorial, Commissioned by Donald Droppo President
Curtis Packaging, operating in Sandy Hook Connecticut Since 1845
Glencoe Public Library, Glencoe IL, “Night Read
2002 Purchase “ Waiting Room”, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, NM
(Western New Mexico University is using my piece as the background for their library website, started 2007)
2019 Divergent Materiality, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale AZ
2018 Narratives in Glass, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
2017 No Glass Ceiling, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs CA
Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA
2015 International Glass Prize , Glazenhuis, Lommel Belgium
2014 Translating Reality: Representation in Glass,Muskegon Museum of Art,MI
2013 Glass Show at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, Mt. Vernon Ill
2009 AMoA Biennial 600 Glass, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo TX, honorable mention
2005 Glass Collectors Show, Palm Desert Museum, Palm Desert, CA
Originals, Women in the Arts, New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
2003 Beauty Born of Fire: Contemporary Glass, Mansfield
