Artist Paul Stankard’s childhood fascination with woods and swamps near his home in New Jersey matured into an artistic practice that celebrates flowers and nature. Stankard is a master of flameworking, or melting and sculpting glass rods, yet he strives to make his efforts invisible, hoping that viewers will instead focus on the beauty of nature. Botanically accurate in form, Stankard’s glass flowers are nonetheless imbued with mystique. They float in ethereal space, and the human faces and bodies hidden among the roots symbolize the life force of plants. The experience of viewing Stankard’s work is often twofold: an awe of the verisimilitude of the plants portrayed, and an unfolding discovery of the mystical elements imbued within them.  

-Linnea Seidling, Assistant Curator of Glass