One Eared Cow Glass Does Commission Work
for New Columbia, SC Convention Center
Mark Woodham and Tommy Lockart of One Eared Cow Glass in Columbia, SC, submitted a proposal for a work of art for the new Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, located at Lincoln and Senate Streets - in the Vista. The new convention center had about $450,000 left over from their construction budget and the staff decided to put the remaining funds into art - art from local artists. One of the themes the architects had in mind was tying the art to the rivers that converge in Columbia. The Saluda and Broad Rivers come together to form the Congaree River.
Woodham and Lockart came up with "Intermingling Convergence" aka. "Flo" (blown glass, stainless steel - 20' x 10' x 3'). They also submitted the following statement:
Through the intermingling processes of living and life, the objects and the experiences that come together are the ones that survive and generate the next more important convergencies.
"Three Rivers" - The converging of the Saluda and Broad Rivers creates new life and possibilities as the Congaree River emerges to begin its own journey. Not only does this theme reoccur in many aspects of life, in the process of glassblowing, fire, sand, and human intervention converge to produce objects borne from the artists ideas and encouraged by the materials properties. Moreover in a project of this type, the intermingling and converging of the theme and the artists ideas were the catalysts that led to the way in which the materials were used to visually convey the meaning. Colors were used to represent the rivers combining, and the individual shapes and wavelike structure represent the flow of the rivers as a whole. In the presence of the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, metaphorically like the rivers, the converging and intermingling of the businesses and visitors that meet here, leads to new ideas a snd experiences encouraging growth. New life and future growth derives from the intermingling and converging that occurs from certain experiences and objects, pointing them on their way to their next interaction.
The project took about six months from inception to installation.
Making the individual pieces.
Mark Woodham starting out the process of making the elongated glass shape which will later be cut in half to make two pieces which when added with over 300 individual pieces will make up "Flo". Here Mark is adding colored pieces of glass to the molten glass.
The molten glass is clear to begin with and small pits of colored glass give the final piece it's color. "Flo" is made up of pieces of primarily blue, green, yellow, and brown - with combinations of all in most of the pieces.
Here Woodham is rolling the colored pieces of glass into the molten glass - which will then be repeatedly put back into the blast furnace to blend the glass together. The motion also contributes to the forming of the elongated shape of the piece.
Here Woodham is further shaping the piece with a thick wad "wet" newspaper - for as long as he can stand it. Sometimes One Eared Cow Glass uses old copies of Carolina Arts. Making some of our editorial commentaries even hotter than normal.
Woodham is using another tool to elongate the shape even more. During all these processes the rod has to be kept in a constant rolling motion so the shape remains even.
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