Artist of the Month
October 2019
Heather Hancock
Heather Hancock is a Chicago artist working with the ancient technique of mosaic. The artist’s work examines our understanding of the importance of our surroundings to our well-being: humans thrive in engaging environments. Her work explores the vibrancy of the cityscape understood as light and shadow, repetition and variation, information and chaos. Heather is represented by Ken Saunders Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Reflect 3.2 Curve, 2018; 48 x 30 inches; hand cut glass inlay; included in Corning Museum of Glass New Glass Now exhibition
Reflect 3.3 Rhythm, 2018; 48 x 30 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 3.4 Beams, 2018; 48 x 30 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 1.55 Diagonals, 2019; 24 x 24 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 1.0, 2019; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 3.8 Curved, 2019; 48 x 30 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 1.63 Details, 2019; 24 x 24 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Reflect 3.7 Urban Mountain, 2019; 48 x 30 inches; hand cut glass inlay
Heather Hancock
Artist Statement:
What attracts and sustains our attention? This question inspires my artwork today and initially propelled my career in healthcare. Working for more than a decade in Chicago hospitals gave me a deep understanding of the importance of our surroundings to well-being: humans thrive in engaging environments. Our minds are designed to seek out information at the intersection of pattern and chaos.
I am inspired by the vibrancy and information I notice in the world around me. The fluidity and constant transformations in the natural world contrast with the predictable segments and hard transitions I find in the cityscape. Light integrates these two worlds, bringing both clarity and complexity to the everyday.
I use glass given its unique capacity to catch light and engage a viewer. My work pairs urban-inspired form and line cut in glass with the ephemeral qualities of light. The work comes alive with even a tiny glimmer of light or a viewer’s motion to create an infinitely variable viewing experience. Setting glass alongside industrial materials such as grout, cement and metal points to the contrast between the natural and manmade worlds and creates tension between light and dark, brilliance and opacity, vibrancy and restraint, fragility and permanence.
About Heather Hancock
Heather Hancock is an interdisciplinary artist making mixed media art with glass. Her art is inspired by how people engage with information in the natural and built worlds. Heather’s work is informed by a master of science degree and a decade-long career in healthcare. Working in Chicago hospitals gave her a deep understanding of how engaging environments contribute to well-being. A master class at Orsoni Studio in Venice, Italy, provided the technical basis for her work.
Matte settings highlight hard-edged luminous glass that shifts and shimmers with light and movement, catching attention and enticing viewers to look again. Light and motion take the pieces beyond static 2D work to offer viewers responsive visual experience.
Heather’s work hangs in private residences, and corporate, healthcare, and government collections across the United States. Her work is included in the New Glass Now exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass, a juried global survey of innovations in contemporary glass.
Heather was born in Alberta, Canada, and has lived in the Chicago area since 1993. She received her master of science in communication disorders from the University of Alberta, Canada.
Click here for an artist's resume.
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Ken Saunders Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, for providing the Artist of the Month.
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.
