Site Map

Artist of the Month
September 2020

Artist of the Month

Debora Moore

Debora Moore is best known for her exquisitely detailed glass renderings of orchids, to which she devoted her practice from the mid-1990s until recently. In her new tour de force series, Arboria, Moore has branched out from the orchid to focus on four life-size flowering trees, currently installed at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Moore is represented by Schantz Galleries, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.

Debora Moore

Artist of the Month

Artist Statement:

I utilize the medium of glass to translate the breathtaking grandeur and delicate fragility of the natural world into a unique sculptural interpretation. The intricate structure of living things and how they thrive in harmony with each other is explored in my reflection of Arboria.

The astounding variety within the tree family provides endless opportunities for artistic expression, with their vibrancy of color and elegance of form. The necessity of the blooms to bond with a strong, stable host is a metaphor for humanity’s tenuous and essential relationship with the earth. 

Within each work, glass is used like paint to achieve depth of color. The material’s inherent ability to transmit and reflect light, as well as its variations from transparency to opacity, lends itself perfectly to achieve desired textures and surfaces. 

By combining new techniques with traditional glassblowing skills, and passionate attention to form and detail, these pieces express my vision of an exotic environment, one that is rooted in reality but springs from the imagination.

These works are both a personal meditation on the glorious wonder of nature, as well as a celebration of its power and mystery. 

About Debora Moore

Debora Moore (b. 1960, resides Seattle), is best known for her exquisitely detailed glass renderings of orchids, to which she devoted her practice from the mid-1990s until recently. In her new tour de force series, Arboria (2018), first exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum through August 2020, and is currently installed at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Moore has branched out from the orchid to focus on four life-size flowering trees of different varieties: cherry, magnolia, winter plum, and wisteria. Moore’s work presents a new chapter in the long history of representing plants in glass, which ranges from ancient renderings to nineteenth-century models used for scientific study. Moore focuses less on realism and is more interested in capturing an intensely personal experience of beauty and wonder.

The list of Debora's professional travels grows by the year and covers several continents. Most recently she was awarded an artist residency at the Niijima Glass Center in Niijima, Japan for the 27th Annual Glass Festival. She has researched moss and lichen in Antarctica, observed orchids in tropical rainforests in Asia, examining how these plants live in their natural environment. She combines realism and imagination in her sculpture, meditating on the glorious wonder of nature and celebrating its power and mystery.

Moore has traveled the world researching her subjects, and her work is found in many private and public collections, including the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Crocker Art Museum, The Chrysler Museum. 

Click here for an artist's resume.

Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Schantz Galleries, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for providing the Artist of the Month.

« back to all artists
Our Mission

The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.

The Alliance informs collectors, critics and curators by encouraging and supporting museum exhibitions, university glass departments and specialized teaching programs, regional collector groups, visits to private collections, and public seminars.