Martine Gow-Cooper

James Bay Art Walk: Artist Profile

By Anne Hansen

The nice thing about writing profiles of fellow artists on the James Bay Art Walk is that I get to discover their work in the process of interviewing them.  Visiting Martine Gow-Cooper confirms that James Bay is very rich in artistic passion and talent.

She creates a diversity of stained and kiln-formed glass art in her James Bay studio.  Martine is currently working on an ambitious commission involving three large doors, each having multiple sections into which she'll insert her pieces.  They will all hinge together, forming an exquisite screen.  On top of this, she still finds time to continue working on existing glass projects as well as painting.

When Martine lived in Ottawa around 1985, she was displeased with the appearance of a certain glass French door where she was living.  "It was ghastly," she recalls.  To remedy the situation, she approached a glass studio that happened to be just around the corner, to inquire about the cost of beautifying it with more tasteful glass. 

Deterred by the prohibitive cost, she asked if they offered studio classes.  That experience sent her on a path.  She "got bitten, and couldn't stop." 

Soon after, Martine moved to the small community of Merrickville, Ontario, where there were several glass studios and a very active arts community.  She became the president of the local artists guild, which held an annual studio tour.  One of her enduring artworks, which came to be known as "The Hanging Gardens of Merrickville," consists of over 15 streamers made from recycled glass.  Hung in the canopy of two large maple trees, some of them are forty feet in the air, having been shot into the trees with a homemade bow and arrow.

Martine later jumped at the opportunity to visit a renowned glassworks studio in Brooklyn, where she stayed in university residence while taking courses.  That's where she was first exposed to the fusing of glass.  She found this very exciting, as unlike stained glass -- which is pieced together but not melted -- there's less knowing how things will turn out.

Martine makes her commissioned works "very personal".  She'll incorporate heirloom keepsakes, like pieces of the person's or the family's jewellry, hairpins, buttons, or photographs.  Her work varies from the large, three-door commission, to mermaids of all sizes, to smaller hand-held functional bowls.

 "You have to be a pack rat," she says, referring to her vast but highly organized stash of driftwood, beach glass, and interestly-textured objects.  She spends a lot of time on the shore, "trolling" for goodies to incorporate into her art.  She was delighted one day to salvage parts of a neighbor's discarded television antenna, which she later used to give her mermaids a fish-like texture.

I couldn't resist asking Martine about the occupational hazards of working with such materials.   Well, she knows somebody who, in a moment of inattention, managed to sit on a sheet of glass.

I did not ask about the consequences of this mishap! 

Martine will be exhibiting her work at 19 South Turner Street on the James Bay Art Walk, on September 22 & 23.