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Seekers presents the work
of Rick and Valerie Beck, a husband and wife team whose original designs in
blown glass are inspired by repetitive patterns around us; such as the
alternating colors on a checkerboard, old wallpaper patterns, or the lines and
veins on a leaf, floral patterns, etc.
The Becks’ painted
cylinders and bowls and large rondelles use the graal
technique, where the surface of the glass is painted with enamel in three
layers. The graal is then encased in
clear crystal, shaped and blown out.
Their
handblown glass ornaments are decorated with circular bits of murrini.
The
couple met as students at Hastings College, NE, where Rick earned his Bachelors
degree in Art with an emphasis on Glass and Valerie was awarded her degree in
Human Services Administration and Political Science. Both went on to Southern
Illinois University where Valerie completed Masters coursework in Educational
Psychology and Rick earned a Master of Fine Arts with a specialty in Glass.
Between
1991 and 1994 Rick was Instructor and Artist in Residence at the Penland School
of Crafts, NC. He also served as a teaching assistant at the Pilchuck Glass
School, Washington State, and Artist in Residence at the Appalachian Center for
Crafts, TN. In 1995 Rick was awarded a SAF/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship.
Rick
started working in glass in 1978, Valerie in 1984. They established their own
studio in rural North Carolina in 1991.
In
1991, the Becks were among only 100 glass artists selected from among thousands
by the Corning Museum of Glass to be published in the prestigious New
Glass Review 12. Since 1992, the Beck’s work has been featured six times
in American Craft Magazine, as well as Glass Magazine.
Their
work is included in numerous private, corporate and public collections
throughout the world, including Dutton Lainson Company; Federal Reserve Bank,
NC; Glasmuseum, Denmark; Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, WI; Mint Museum, NC;
Johnson Wax Corporate Collection; and McDonalds’ Corporate Collection.
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