Client: Anderson Dale Architects for Anschutz Medical Campus

Overview

Scientists are intimately familiar with ‘heat charts’ fashioned on an x:y axis, each cell is color coded from deep blue to bright red depending on the relative ‘heat’ or score for that variable. For many researchers, these charts feel beautiful and hold surprising patterns with clusters of color and the occasional outlier that offers a burst of yellow. Personally, I LOVE them. This was a chance to make an 8x10 ft installation in the Anschutz Medical Sciences building on the University of Colorado Campus in Aurora, Colorado. 16 overlapping kiln-fired fused glass panels installed in 2022.

Goals

The Architects at Anderson Dale envisioned artwork on the walls of the 5 story open atrium, visible from multiple vantage points. Each piece has an appeal to the scientists and data analysts working on DNA based personalized medicine in this new $250 million facility on the Anschutz campus in Aurora, Colorado.

Process

16 panels of 22" x 33" glass were fired in a large glass kiln in my studio. Made with two layers of over 7000 1"x3" cut glass pieces of hand-rolled Bullseye Glass from Portland, Oregon. The nuanced colors were produced by mixing glass in each 3mm layer. Stacked two deep, the final thickness is 6mm or 1/4". Each panel was trimmed on a large glass saw, holes drilled in exactly the right placement and fired a second time to produce shiny clean edges. Made and produced entirely by the artist in Austin, Texas.