We are lucky that Bullseye New York chose Mamaroneck to establish one of their four state-of-the-art glass-making studios nationwide.

By Margot Clark-Junkins

We are lucky that Bullseye New York chose Mamaroneck to establish one of their four state-of-the-art glass-making studios nationwide. Bullseye Glass is a rare combination of manufacturer, school, research center, retailer, gallery, and artist community. On a Sunday afternoon late last month, nearly 50 people showed up for a lecture by glass artist Michael Endo and a gallery opening of works by glass artist Michael Rogers.

Michael Endo, a painter who began taking classes at Bullseye in Portland, gave a slide presentation of his painterly-looking glass panels, which are layered with color and meaning.

The creation process is interesting and was described in Glass Art magazine (2013): “‘Using the vitreous enamel is just like using paint. I’ve done a lot of drawing using powdered charcoal and graphite, and using glass powder is similar to that.’ He sifts or spreads the frit (ceramic composition) onto the surface, manipulating it with a brush or rubber-tipped tool…Endo paints his imagery on the front and back surfaces of the 3 mm-thick glass sheets and fuses those individually in his kiln. They are then layered and inspected before another firing fuses the panels together.”

His subject matter is the woods, the dark and empty places in nature where possibilities open up, where transformations — good and evil — take place when no one is watching. 

After the slide presentation, we moved into the spacious gallery featuring cast glass sculptures and intaglio prints by artist Michael Rogers. Recalling the artistic tradition of “vanitas,” Rogers has created 3-dimensional “still lifes” cast entirely in glass. There are skulls in smoky gray and amber hues resting amid the articles of daily life (a tray, a key, a bottle). Rogers, an affable and modest man with extraordinary skill in both glassmaking and printmaking, wants his viewers to remember their mortality and to observe the passage of time with greater care. “Time is the real currency,” he says. 

This is art worth owning and can be had for an affordable price. Rogers headed Aichi University’s Glass Department in Japan for 11 years; he is now a Professor in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology. Rogers’ work can be found in many permanent collections, including the Suntory Museum of Art in Japan, First Contemporary Glass Museum in Spain, Museo del Vidrio in Mexico, National Museum in L’viv, Ukraine, and the Corning Museum of Glass in the United States.

The Bullseye Glass Resource Center is at 115 Hoyt Avenue. The show runs through May 16. For more information, call 835-3794 or visit www.bullseyeglass.com/ newyork.