Spotlight on Marcia Brown
I was born in Michigan but fell in love with the Florida lifestyle coming to visit my great-grandmother on the Gulf of Mexico. I earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine arts and moved to Sarasota, Florida. Well, I moved my meager possessions and got an Amtrak pass for 4 months to discover America. I was looking at colleges as well, but my financial support to pursue higher education was suspended by my step dad. I enrolled at the University of South Florida and then decided to pursue another degree in education. I enjoyed 33 years as an elementary art teacher. That gave me time for lots of summer travel enjoying cultural pursuits and museums all across Europe.
Now the artistic poet alive inside craved that desire to create and work with my hands, mind, heart so my creative pursuits were mixed media, jewelry, 3d collages always about the beads or other embellishments. I create altered books & tribute pieces honoring rock stars, authors and artists. I also work in Clay at a friend’s studio, my favorite being the raku firing process.
Fire and heat, my real love is glass! I love the challenge it presents. I love that I can always learn more. I enjoy the way glass gives me surprises in the way colors react. I like making whimsical small sculptures with holes! I love designing beads to go with fabric I use for inspiration. My adornments then match my outfits, seriously how cool is that! I have sold my jewelry since high school as a side gig. Often off my body (that comment often causes raised eyebrows. LOL!) Making my own beads gives me a dimension of control and creativity in my original designs. I’m all over the place with my glass so I don’t really have a style. I’m just in love with all the possibilities presented in glass. I also enjoy that my torch time is so zen. It’s just the glass and the rhythm and the nowness of it.
I enjoy creating and learning the wonder that glass is. Most of my experience was self-taught using “Passing the Flame” by Corina Tettinger as a guide. Some wise one once said T.O.T. is the best teacher – Time on Torch. They were right to a certain degree, but you also need directions, inspirations, challenges and the knowledge possessed and passed on by the masters of this craft. In a nutshell we need each other !!! We are so lucky to live in an Era that allows us to communicate across the globe in real time. It’s all quite new to me but I am learning. I forged many new friendships at the ISGB gathering in Omaha and was so lucky to win the scholarship! It was the catalyst in getting there. The networking was incredible and that’s how I found The Glass Dragons.
The opportunity was just perfect in that this is my second start in glass. Due to health, life and the fact that my oxygen concentrator (20 yrs old) needed to be rebuilt again. I just didn’t light it. When I tried to work the flame, it fluctuated so badly it made work difficult. So 2023 life had settled down and I bought a new rebuilt 02 concentrator in May.
Wow I realized I missed that torch time. My skills are slowly – very slowly – coming back. I tend to be all over the place in my glass work and it’s OK every experience behind the torch is learning, so sometimes I try things out of my league. I allow myself to play and allow myself to make mistakes. Most of all I have fun.
