Christina Amri Acts of Light: Fine Art through Glass, feat. in Glass Art Magazine
Glossy, full color, lots of gorgeous inspirational art glass and a really good portrait of our Studio!
I grew up on GLASS ART magazine and was inspired by many of my glass heroes depicted in it.
The Editor and the writer, Colleen Bryan, really took her time with this interview and did a wonderful job describing our Studio’s work and why I do it.
What is it like putting in one of the largest Tiffany style stained glass murals in the country? (How many thousand pieces of rare glass and jewels went into it anyway??) How on earth do you train for anything like this!? And, what’s it like working with a great client in Las Vegas for decades?
Is it different for women entrepreneurs in a contracting style art business? How do we stay fresh, have some fun and keep evolving in our field?!
I am so honored and glad to be included in the world of art glass and in the wonderful GLASS ART circle!
I invite you to take a peek, and walk with me from Chartres Cathedral in France to the Casinos of Las Vegas, to artisanally carving thick sheets of crystal and LED edge-lighting them.
If you wish to purchase a copy of this issue, please do so here on Glass Art Magazine’s website.
Yours,
The Last Black Man in San Francisco - TRAVEL with us, Jimmie Fails, and Jonathan Majors -- from San Francisco, to France’s Chartres Cathedral, and back to San Francisco
Always going home, with glass art, heart and architecture.
Imagine my surprise when my long-ago business partner (and high-school sweetheart) called me the other day to say, “Hey, our stained glass is in the new movie ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ — and it looks good!”
When I looked up the movie online, I saw our Studio’s very first commissioned stained glass work (done when we were straight out of San Francisco’s Lowell High School), created for a once magnificent but at the time somewhat run-down Victorian mansion in San Francisco’s Mission District. At the time, we were starving artists saving money for a trip to Paris (hoping to get a glass apprenticeship there) and living in a relative’s garage, where we had a workbench to build my much beloved stained glass creations.
Mark Adams piece in Temple Emanuel
image by @lucyduarte_art
We were self-taught but passionate. At age 15, just a few years before, I had seen the respected Bay Area artist Mark Adams’ stained glass at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, and I’d fallen in love. Real art, real colored glass, ebullient shapes – it was magical for me! I wondered what kind of scissors could have cut those shapes out of glass, and I knew I wanted to do this work “when I grew up.” I had none of the fears that can develop later in life when wanting to dive into something new.
The four-story, turreted and multi-roomed Victorian was owned by a brilliant but church-poor engineer, who shared it with one of our high school English teachers. Little by little, over the years, they would repair and restore the home on their small salaries. For them, it was a labor of love. And they trusted us and our unstoppable enthusiasm! They managed to scrape up a minimal commission fee and set us loose!
Photo by Abraham Rodriguez
The house must have once had some original stained glass that had been vandalized or stolen, and it cried out for a house number over the door in a transom window. Plus, the paneled, gingerbread-ornamented living room needed a focal point and visually opaque glass to screen it from the busy street below. For that, we designed an initial “T” (to honor Jim Tyler, the original owner who owned the house since the 1960s). The lead lines and lettering were hand drawn (no Adobe Illustrator in the early ‘70s), and the design flavor was intuitively achieved. We wanted it to be very special – as ornate as the house itself – and our patrons were very pleased. We four stood on stepladders to install it. Luckily, Jim and his partner knew what they were doing — my construction know-how was a long way from where it is today!
Since that time, I apprenticed in France, where we helped restore some of the stained glass at Chartres Cathedral. Later, going on to create custom glass for homes and even installed acres of intricate high-end Tiffany-style panels in a series of casinos in Las Vegas.
Garden of Earthly Delights , Southpoint Casino, Las Vegas
1st Presbyterian Church,
designs and fabrication by Amri Studio
And, as you probably know, I later branched out into designing and installing some of the largest carved crystal and LED edge-lit murals and Donor Recognition Walls in the country for clients like prestigious medical centers, universities, performing arts centers, and libraries.
Recently, a client with whom I’ve worked for over 40 years had me unpack and restore a fabulous 25-ft. long stained glass mural I did for him at the Southpoint Casino in Las Vegas — and it’s now back in place, with new lighting, better than ever!
Video shot by Stas Afanasiev
The trust and confidence our first San Francisco clients gave us “kids” helped us foster our entrepreneurships, my urge toward mastery of my craft, and my continuing love of glass and the way it interacts with light.
The reviews are calling “The Last Black Man In San Francisco” one of the year’s best films. As one of them put it, “While there is great acting from legends and newcomers, the real star of ‘The Last Black Man In San Francisco’ is that piece of architecture.” And, “The home is an architectural gem, decorated with stained-glass windows, ornate columns and balustrades, gorgeous inlays and built-ins…”
Note : As artists working over many decades, we have seen the effects of gentrification. Artists have often chosen the great old (but often run down) neighborhoods in cities throughout the US, and even the world, to find their still affordable abandoned warehouse or storefront spaces to do their work. Today that is getting harder to find and certainly most heartbreakingly challenging for all the neighborhoods and families that may have been living there for generations as real estate gets converted to high-end living spaces! I like the awareness this film is bringing to the economic stratification and struggles of everyday people, and the concept of HOME. I hope every city awakens to this and takes into consideration the needs of its diverse neighbors and helps preserve or provide resources to support the needs and soul-filled character of each town. Honoring—HOME. We are ALL--- interconnected.
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” –Martin Luther King Jr
“Weird as it sounds, this movie is a love story about me and a house,” writes star Jimmie Fails in the film’s press release. “It’s a tribute to the notion of home that we all carry.”
Here is what I remember best: The love that went into this home and house, recognized by its then owner for its inner magic despite its shabby state and lovingly restored inch by inch, was contagious! I can honestly say that all of my adventures in glass designing and carving, lighting, even installing that followed have been acts of honoring and acts of love.
Most recently, that passion is evidenced by the limited edition, carved crystal art glass pieces we will be offering soon. These small, luxe works of art with their exquisite, jewel-like appearance have earned them the name The Gemstone Collection. We are proud and excited to be entering yet another era of creative crystal design! We envisioned wall art, executive gifts, meditation focal points, and a gorgeous Bridal Series for weddings! We’re launching our website the first week in September and we encourage everyone to look at our collection and enhance their home and workplace with beautiful “Acts of Light.” In fact, as our celebratory gift to you, the first 10 people who reference this blog post will get a 10% discount on their piece of choice!
Preview of our Gemstone Collection which launches the first week of September
Vision is The Art of Seeing What is Invisible to Others (Jonathan Swift)
Since moving Amri Studio up to our new home in Portland, Oregon, we've been captivated by the MAGIC that now occurs in formerly abandoned industrial spaces in the Pacific Northwest. These once-forsaken and relinquished spaces, vast and high-ceilinged, invite makers and creativity, and are now home to high-end art, architecture, and fine artisanal craft. Spaces once busy but now abandoned, drafty, wet, and dirty now birth inspired, elegant creations.
Artists have always had a nose for wonderful and inexpensive spaces in which to create their art. In Portland, these spaces have already been discovered. The most coveted of real estate, they are industrial chic and hard to come by. A case in point is Portland's Pearl District.
In fact, Amri Studio took a messy and daunting space — dark, leaky, and sparking with shorting electrical wires — and transformed it to “bring to light” our intricately conceived, exquisitely crafted, luminous, nationally acclaimed, and award-winning crystal art. Our work can be found across North America in leading medical centers, universities, museums, the hospitality industry, corporate offices, and luxury homes.
This SCULPTURE is a breathtaking 10’ high slab of hand-carved crystal in a locally machined steel welded frame. This juxtaposition of opposites highlights LADY FREEDOM’s elegance. Seen at the top of this post, we have rendered her in an abandoned warehouse — to articulate freedom and possibilities.
The figure’s breathtaking beauty and Statue of Liberty type gesture, and the swirl of birds being released into the sky express both freedom and high ideals, the very essence of the artist’s path.
Designed in the tradition of Rene Lalique’s superb crystal mascot figures and the style of American Modernist sculptors, who used heroic and allegorical figures in their building ornamentation, our Lady Freedom is bas-relief deep-carved in high-polished crystal.
This sculpture demonstrates one of the most challenging technical processes in working with glass. The large, deep, and rounded forms of the human body are sculpted more than halfway into the almost 2” thickness of the crystal. For hundreds of hours, high-pressure abrasive was hand-guided by Christina and her team in an industrial blast booth originally designed for carving headstones and memorials. During this process, the glass artisan must scoop out a perfectly smooth and sensual thigh or breast from a block of material that weighs hundreds of pounds, costs thousands of dollars, and is almost totally unforgiving.
It is a Zen process, where a moment’s inattention or a wavering hand can ruin it.
Another challenge is that the shaping and sculpting is done both backwards and inside out – meaning that the blasting is done on the back of the crystal. The body’s apparent high points are in fact the carving’s low points. This piece is a demonstration of master-level artisanship. It is a demanding process. There is nothing automated or chemical about it.
Now complete, the deep bas-relief carving in the slab illuminates itself via custom-engineered LED edge-lighting hidden inside the side rails of the steel frame. The LIGHT travels through the glass like a fiber optic, emerging out the top through the exposed polished edges.
The process of creating this piece — the evolution from sandblasting GRIT to high-polished GLEAM — echoes the transformation that occurs when we bring light and creativity into seemingly unwelcoming warehouse spaces — or to any difficult endeavor!
Our studio has now spent four years in our new neighborhood in Portland, and we’re learning neighbor by neighbor some of the extraordinary and state-of-the-art things going on behind old industrial doors. We are appreciating the power inherent in the juxtaposition of opposites, and the visioning of as-yet-unseen and brilliant possibilities.
Detail of Amri Studio Kettering Hospital Tribute/History Wall in Kettering, Ohio.
In fact, much of our work seeks to deeply honor the VISIONARIES among us — those who have the ability to see what isn’t yet seeable, and who innovate and launch challenging endeavors before others can see the benefit of it. We honor the daring transformations, and the leaders — Donors, Development Officers, often entire Communities — who have been passionate enough to envision them. Over and over again, they determinedly nurture their ideas into existence.
Major Donors Joyce and Roger Howe in front of their carved crystal tribute at The Christ Hospital — Cincinnati, Ohio
As we transition into Fall, a time of transformation, we invite you to “see the future through the lens of possibility”. Like our edge-lit, luminous Lady Freedom, we must all also release our own light.
Warmly,
Christina and Team
Expressing CARE, Gratitude and God’s Love
We had a wonderful and touching opportunity earlier this year to create a Welcome Wall, Donor Tribute, History Wall, and Prayer Niche for the newly expanded Joe Arrington Cancer Center in Lubbock, Texas.
A great deal of caring and effort went into this community’s desire to be able to support their cancer patients as neighbors in their own comforting neighborhood, close to home yet with state of the art treatment options. As part of Covenant Health Systems, this Cancer Center is a ministry of Christian healing with a deep belief in God. We wanted our installation to sincerely and palpably express God’s love to all who entered. The extraordinary devotion and care of staff also needed to be expressed and a feeling of sacred purpose shared.
Our overall goal was to welcome and reassure cancer patients, their friends and families with inspiring messages of faith, loving neighbors and community, and heartening stories of the Center’s values and care. We wanted to thank Donors, honor staff, and give succor. During the design phase, we conducted careful in-person interviews with leadership, clinicians, lead Donors, the Foundation staff and patients in order to understand on an emotional, heart, and spiritual level the core of what makes this Cancer Center and its community unique.
We also needed find a way to tell the institution’s 200-year history succinctly and meaningfully, and provide compelling personal tributes to its Lead Donor and founding namesake, Christine DeVitt, and her Foundation. Without Ms. DeVitt’s extraordinary grit -- and the role she played as a Texas pioneer and later philanthropist -- much of what is now thriving in Lubbock would not have had the support to grow.
Ms. DeVitt hated her photo to be taken, so she is wonderfully represented by the typically Texan tall windmill, standing vigil over all her lands, and in this case, flourishing acres of golden wheat. Nourishment and communing with Christ is subtly expressed. In addition, we needed to honor all the community members for their generosity and caring, and make the list of thousands of Annual Donors who continue to give easily updatable.
The theme of LIGHT permeates this Cancer Center and our art-messaging installation, in meaning and in structure. God brings light and illumination to all His Children. His Mercy is expressed in His Covenant, so we carefully designed this introductory panel as if it were truly an Illuminated manuscript, using antique hand-lettered font style and art (a lacy “rose window”-like interpretation of a blooming stem of Queen Anne’s lace).
We also engineered edge-mounted LEDs to beam light through the carved crystal and letterforms and create a glowing presence. It also symbolizes the philanthropic “Acts of Light” offered by this compassionate community. In addition, we trained warm, long-life MR-16 spotlights -- evocative of candlelight in churches -- on the crystal panels in the hospital's hallway, which had its own candle-like lighting and soft, protective curves.
The three “entry experience” installations we created capture the essence of Covenant Health’s healing ministry in a poetic, exquisite and jewel-like series of waystations. Design elements “speak” to one another with imagery, design vocabulary, color, and luminosity through the three areas and across the hallway from their respective niches. Hundreds of names of significant Donors are permanently honored in crystal next to a custom-programmed and sensitively hardwood-framed, integrated LCD screen that gently scrolls a skyscape from right to left to display an easily updatable list of up to 5,000) Annual Donors
The beautifully interwoven and radiating threads immediately express the story of the many different beliefs, people, and institutions who came together in UNITY to create this cancer center.
The niches end in a touching Prayer Wall offering an opportunity to lovingly offer and read scriptural reassurances and handwritten prayers (on a carved crystal plaque and small parchment-like paper scrolls) and to meditate on their meaning. Patients and families may take a slip of parchment-like paper and write a hope, blessing, or prayer to wedge into an adjacent sculptural metal prayer tree.
At heart, good design is potent and heartfelt. These extraordinary permanent-monument murals afford a rare opportunity to reflect and meditate on life, gratitude, one’s own feelings and needs, and faith. The once-empty niches along the progressive circulation path in this medical facility have now become small “pilgrimage stations.”
“Pilgrimage is something built into the human condition," says George Weigel, a distinguished theologian. "There seems to be something hardwired into us, spiritually, that the idea of a journey from A to B becomes part of the [comfort and] rhythm of the spiritual life. There's purpose built into life, and the religious habit of pilgrimage is the embodiment of that in … daily life."
We also portrayed the deep themes of interdependence, interconnectivity, and community. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., taught us, “We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” We live to serve life and nourish spirit.
I want to thank the Covenant community for the invitation and opportunity to get deeply involved in their healing work as an artist and a contributor to the heartfelt honoring the Donors that support Covenant’s compassionate work.
Christina Amri
Photos by John Sutton
A Sudden Burst of Creativity and Fundraising
I want to show you a short video we shot in our new Amri Studio headquarters in Portland, OR – snippets of a spontaneous evening of art, dance, song, and philanthropy that I created with my staff, my neighbors, and Kathy Kingston, a world-class philanthropic auctioneer.
We were auctioning time to work with us at the studio to create a small piece of art glass. The proceeds went to support p:ear, a Portland nonprofit that uses art, education and recreation to mentor homeless young people, and has a gallery to display their art. Auction attendees were bidding for time in our studio to work with us and create their own piece of art glass.
Stas Afanisiev, a young professional photographer/videographer in the Portland Area, caught some choice fleeting moments of the evening on video.
A confluence of blessings and motivations resulted in this marvelous evening. I wanted to celebrate:
- My happiness at moving to the beautiful community-minded city of Portland.
- My desire to honor my talented new staff and their youthful, receptive, creative, playful spirits.
- My wonderful neighborhood and awesome neighbors here in the Pearl/ABC/Slabtown area of northwest Portland.
- The joy of creation: The giant LCD screens you see in the video happened to be in our studio because we were testing them. They are state-of-the-art, commercial 4K LCD screens that will be used in our first digital Donor Recognition project. This will be installed shortly at Boston Children’s Hospital and has animation featuring charming art by children’s book illustrator and artist Elly McKay from Canada.
On the LCD screens we showed with random movies, including a dazzling abstract art Vimeo film that showed ice cubes melting with cool music in the background – and we thought, someone needs to dance in front of this! One of our collaborative artists, David, and a young new dancer, Amanda Ingleheart of the Northwest Dance Project, did the honors. Then our staff member Zak Austin played guitar and sang his own compositions.
Our studio neighbors at Barefoot Sound, which does zero-distortion speakers for rock stars worldwide, loaned us two top of the line engineeredspeakers that filled our entire 5,000 sq. ft. studio with glorious sound.
Singer and voice teacher Daniel Buchanan of re:sound:NW, which he founded, sang Hallelujah, and the amazing Kathy Kingston, who does strategic planning and consulting and award-winning philanthropic fundraising auctioneering, donated her talents to auction off some of our time and attention at the studio for two people to come in and make something in art glass. P.S. Kathy just published an acclaimed new book on fundraising,A Higher Bid, an Amazon-bestseller in its category.
The serendipity of having world-class speakers and screens, a world-class auctioneer, our own prize-winning art glass on display, the huge talents of our internal team and so many Portland locals, and the excitement about coming together as a community to have some fun and do some good for p:ear… it reminded me of the image of Indra's Net.
A story from both the Buddhist and Hindu traditions tells of the abode of the great god Indra, king of heaven, where hangs a wondrous vast net, much like a spider's web in intricacy and loveliness. It stretches out indefinitely in all directions. At each node, or crossing point, of the net hangs a single glittering jewel. Since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number.
The polished surface of each gem reflects all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number, just as two mirrors placed opposite each other reflect an image ad infinitum. Each jewel reflected in the one gem also reflects all the other jewels, so that the process of reflection is itself infinite.
Each of us is a sparkling jewel in Indra's Net, as is every person around you. Every jewel is connected with all the other jewels in the net; every person is intimately connected with all the other persons in the universe. Each has an independent place within the net and we all reflect and influence each other.
May we all hold this image in mind and remember that we are deeply connected to each other, for good or ill, and have a huge capacity for sharing our creativity and love and hope for infinite possibilities.
In Praise of Acts of Light
We regard every charitable donation as "an act of light." As such, that act and the people responsible for it deserve deep and lasting honor for their selfless generosity. As do the people who work in those much-needed institutions.
This is why one of our specialties at Amri Studio is creating Major Donor Tributes. These focused works of crystal or glass give us the chance to tell a story and expand a simple thank you into a gleaming work of visual gratitude.
Our Tribute to Abra Rockefeller Prentice Wilkins, one of Chicago's most treasured philanthropists, is thematically coherent with the feminine architectural lines of the stunning Prentice Women’s Hospital (part of Northwestern Memorial), both its interior and its curving exterior. Our Tribute was decorated with the very feminine shape of ginkgo leaves and mounted on an oval pillar in their curving lobby.
Often, a gift officer of a hospital, university or other non-profit will meet with me and ask, "What can an institution do to deeply honor and thank its most generous donors?"
My answer is to take out our portfolio of Donor Tributes, start turning the pages, and say, "Let us create a timeless, monument-style tribute in luminous panels of crystal –- an exquisite expression of gratitude commensurate with the caliber of your architecture and your mission."
The Tribute above is to Benjamin and Marian Schuster of the Schuster Heart Hospital in Kettering, OH. Dr. Schuster was a heart surgeon there for more than 40 years, deeply loved and supported during a 55-year marriage by his late philanthropist wife, Marian. We told their touching story in white-etched italics beneath their photo, which was rendered in etched glass. On a second layer, we interwove gold leafing on a calligraphy script to tell the story of their love through the words of Shakespeare.
We take special satisfaction in creating Tributes to philanthropic couples whose great love has empowered them to offer lasting gifts to the world.
CERTAIN THINGS ARE FUNDAMENTAL
TO HUMAN FULFILLMENT: TO LIVE,
TO LOVE, TO LEARN,
TO LEAVE A LEGACY.
Stephen R. Covey
When we create a timeless Tribute to a Donor couple, like George and Dolores Dore Eccles, above, we are not only recognizing their gift to the to institution, we are also honoring and celebrating their partnership, the institution's relationship with them, and all the work their gift will enable the hospital (in this case, the Eccles Critical Care Pavilion of the University of Utah Hospital) to do for the community it serves.
We find that partnership, collaboration, unity, deep care, and interconnectedness lie at the heart of all great relationships. That includes the relationship between an institution and the community it serves.
Sometime those attributes are spelled out in deep-carved text, sometimes they are implied by the hopeful smile of a child at Boston Children's Hospital, a vintage photo of a nurse gently holding a newborn at St. Mary's Hospital in Colorado, or the sheer joy of being alive, depicted on the end panel of a Wall of Honor celebrating their scientists' role in the decoding of DNA at Baylor College of Medicine.
May your Donors' generosity lead you to our website and encourage you to call or email me personally (christina@amristudio.com or 503-488-5638) about how we can create a timeless and exquisitely beautiful Tribute for your Major Donor.
True Donor Recognition: Honoring Donors, Honoring History
When the head of the Foundation of The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati asked me to design a Donor Wall with history elements, as well as some individual Donor Tribute Plaques, I knew exactly where to start. Not with today's Donors, but in the past.
In this case, 125 years in the past. Often, exploring the deepest roots of an institution shows me a way to trace the path of generosity from the people who founded it, through those who kept it going and growing, and eventually winding up with the people who are making it expand, thrive and win awards today.
In the late 1880's, Cincinnati was the biggest and brightest city in the state of Ohio. But not all of its citizens were thriving. Poverty and illness lived side by side with unprecedented prosperity. Local doctors, a local businessman, and an American missionary who had practiced for years in India decided to change that.
James N. Gamble
Isabella Thoburn
Moved by the suffering they saw, local leader James N. Gamble (son of the Procter & Gamble co-founder) and an energetic Methodist deaconess named Isabella Thoburn joined forces to found a tiny, ten-bed hospital in 1889 for those in need.
Their efforts flowed from the twin springs of compassion and philanthropy. Soon that tiny hospital grew, and grew, and grew.
By 1915, that ten-bed hospital, originally located in what had been a private home, had been moved into new quarters, enlarged seven times, and had grown to an unprecedented 200 beds.
Over the many decades of the 20th Century, its glowing white cupola became iconic. Because the hospital sits atop Mt. Auburn and overlooks downtown, the Christ Hospital's tower is visible from all over the city. Thus the distinctive white tower came to symbolize a beacon of hope and healing,
Today, Christ Hospital has 600 beds, a new Joint & Spine Center (with another 600 beds), has achieved numerous awards and medical "firsts," and for 15 consecutive years has been named to U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Hospitals. Working with architects SOM, they also completely redesigned the hospital's facade and added a huge and airy lobby, all to better serve patients.
What I gleaned from this long story, as an artist and designer, was that the founders were the beginning of a long unbroken strand -- not unlike the river that flows past the city -- of resources, generosity and compassion. And that the tower symbolized all of these attributes. It would need an important role in the design of our Donor Wall.
Here is the printout of the design we proposed to The Christ Hospital Foundation and Rick Kammerer. (You will need to click on the image to enlarge it.)
At the left on the wall are the Donor Names, under the words "A Lifetime of Leadership" intermingled with inspirational quotes. Moving to the right, you see a protruding double-layer crystal panel feature that has the iconic tower and the expanded building’s glowing new 21st century “square beacon” framing it. (This will be more visible in the photos that follow)
At the far right is the history panel showing Mr. Gamble and Deaconess Thoburn, with the story of how they came together to modestly start what became a great and compassionate enterprise.
(The blue background above indicated the color that the wall behind the carved crystal would be painted. As you will see below, the color ends up looking much subtler in real life.)
Once our design was approved by all, we got to work fabricating the carved and etched glass. I thought you'd enjoy seeing some photos from the work that went on in our Studio. Above, a production specialist is removing tiny pieces of the stencil that would block certain areas of the glass while it is sandblasted.
Here is a close-up of the carved columns at the base of the bell tower.
Partially carved parts of the bell tower, its louvers, and cross.
A longer view of the work in progress, looking up from the round window at its base.
Here I am working with one of our talented Amri Studio artisanal team members in our new Portland, OR, studio.
At last, the wall is up! Standing proudly before it are Donors Kathy and Dr. Don Raithel, whose names are carved into the wall behind them and lit with LEDs, which make the text pop!
Here is another group of satisfied and well-thanked Donors enjoying their first visit to the Donor and History Wall that commemorates their membership in an unbroken stream of souls whose compassion and generosity has made the hospital the wonderful place of healing it is today.
Naming Donor Joyce Howe, an accomplished painter, points out the Donor plaque we created to honor the leadership gift from her and her husband, Roger.
Roger and Joyce Howe next to their likenesses carved into glass. Our staff writer also created the Tribute on the plaque:
"Their Leadership gift sustains our commitment to provide each patient and family with exceptional care. The Howes have listened to, guided, and supported this hospital for many years, starting in 1974.... Longtime philanthropists of this city, Joyce and Roger have given generously over the years to support healthcare, education and the arts."
Lastly, two men who certainly should be smiling on this opening day: From left, Mike Keating, President and CEO of The Christ Hospital, and George Vincent, Chairman of the Hospital Board. Not pictured, unfortunately, is Debbie Hayes, Vice President and Chief of Operations for the hospital. She, too, was a key collaborator in this project.
I want to close with just one of the emails we got from the team at the hospital after all the work was done. This came from Rick Kammerer, head of the Foundation, with whom we worked closely.
Christina,
Thank you so very much for the transformational works of art that now grace the public lobbies of our institution for many years to come. We are the honored recipients of your craftsmanship and artistry...and your love of your work. Please extend my thanks to your entire team.
With gracious thanks,
Rick
My letter to Rick et al nearly crossed in the "mail"!
Dear Rick, Debbie, and Mike,
Your hospital lobby and additions are beautiful and will add so much airy, usable, contemporary and healing space to your hospital. It's been an honor to work with you all to develop these important visual statements — now designed, fabricated and up on your lobby walls!
We loved this opportunity to help tell your story and values, and to express your highly caring and professional standards along with your warm culture of honoring.
I really appreciate how everyone joined forces to make a complex, sensitive and time-consuming project come to life! We are all inspired by your generous, caring Donor and support community and their powerful “acts of Light.” I look forward to our continued work in the future!
Sincerely,
Making a Move (and Taking a Break)
Photo by Jim Nix from his blog Nomadic Pursuits
We have finally completed the long-contemplated move of our Studio from the rolling hills of California wine country to Portland, Oregon, home to exciting new ventures, lots of young talent, and other wonderful resources.
It's also a lot easier to fly in and out of, which is a real benefit to our new and existing clients who come to see their pieces during the design or sandblasting stage.
Our new contact information is Amri Studio, 826-B NW 18th Ave., Portland, OR 97209; tel 503 488-5638; fax 503 980-1316. No change to email or website. I'll talk more about our new Portland team, assets, and resources in a later blog.
Taking a Break to Rest and Reflect
On Monday, July 27, we begin our Studio’s our annual two-week summer closure (reopening Monday, August 10).
This is a time for the entire staff (including me!) to rest, renew, and refresh our spirits -- and think deeply about the meaning of what we do. Sometimes in the rush of day-to-day deadlines we don't allow ourselves enough time to focus on anything but the details and getting the job done on time.
But when we have a chance to step back and breathe, we remember the big picture and are inspired anew. Let me tell you one of my very favorite stories about the difference between the coping with the immediate task and the big picture way of doing our work.
Watercolor of St. Paul’s Cathedral by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd
In 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed most of the city and reduced venerable Old St. Paul’s Cathedral to charred timber and rubble. The famous architect Sir Christopher Wren was hired to design a new church. After many plans and revisions, construction finally began in 1677 when Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason, laid the first stone of the new cathedral.
Sir Thomas Wren’s plans for the dome of St. Paul’s
One day Sir Christopher was surveying the progress the men were making on his huge creation. He stopped to speak to one of the stonecutters, and asked the man what he was doing.
“I’m cutting blocks of stone,” the he replied, a big testily. “Each one the same as the next. And the next. And the next. Every bloody stone just exactly the same.”
Sir Christopher wisely moved on. He approached a second stonecutter and asked the man what he was doing.
“Why, sir, I’m earning a living to feed my family,” he replied, apparently puzzled that anyone should need to ask.
Then Sir Christopher spotted a third stonecutter, very intent on his work. “What are you doing, good sir?” asked the architect.
The man looked up at him. He was covered with stone dust and his hands were heavily callused. He looked tired, but he looked satisfied, too.
“I am building a monument to the glory of God,” he said with a deeply furrowed smile.
Two photos at left by Gabriel Harber; at right, detail from Donor Wall we created at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences in Charleston, WV
The joy and satisfaction we take in our work depends in very large part on the context in which we hold that work. For me, designing and carving architectural art glass and stone -- or working in etched metal or porcelain enamel -- is not just about sandblasting tiny lines and curves into panels of crystal, or even about running a successful small business in a field I love.
It’s about creating timeless works of art that deeply honor the donors, institutions, and staff members who together are doing vital and heartfelt work to make our world a better place. I feel honored myself to be a part of their endeavors.
And that’s what I’ll be thinking about in the coming two weeks as I rest, relax and refresh my energies for an exciting autumn in our new Studio in Portland.
Donor Recognition for a Hospital Close to My Heart
Building a new community hospital is an act of love -- and patience and determination and cooperation and generosity!
The new Sutter Santa Rosa (CA) Regional Hospital, right here in the town where Amri Studio has had its home for 30+ years, will open October 25. It was my honor to create the carved and etched crystal Donor Recognition Wall and Plaques that thank the Donors, employees, and community for their part in bringing this great project to completion.
The collage below gives you some highlights -- you may need to click on the image to enlarge it so you can read the captions more easily. Below that, I will tell you a couple of special stories about the project.
As glad as the greater Santa Rosa community is to have a new, seismically safe, $284 million state-of-the-art hospital, many of my neighbors felt a deep personal connection to the beautiful old hospital, which was established in 1866.
This is why we brought some of the key visual details from the old building (above, at far right) into the Donor Art for the new building. In fact, one of the iconic architectural details from the old hospital building became a powerful artistic focal point in the form of a compass rose, used on the main Donor Wall and on smaller Donor Plaques around the building.
This detail says "YOU ARE HERE", and further points into the heart of the new building.The compass is a symbol long used in architecture to ask, "Where are you headed? What is your purpose and intention?" in a profound and metaphorical sense.
The four directions on the compass are aligned with the true geography of the lobby, showing a heading pointing to the Russian River. This river -- long a symbol of life, community and trade -- empties into the vast and rich Pacific Ocean.
There is one other very special detail of this installation I want to share with you. Carved in crystal and mounted in its own light box, it is both a tribute to the artist and a gift from his widow to divert and delight children (of all ages, as they say) entering the hospital.
The artist you will recognize at a glance. His widow, a philanthropist and community acitivist, is Jean L. Schulz.
My deepest thanks to the team at Sutter Santa Rosa for allowing us to be part of this heartfelt project.
Donor Art That Delights a Diverse Audience
How do you design a Donor Wall to please a hospital's sophisticated philanthropist-Donors that will also entertain and divert the children who come there for treatment?
Our answer was to incorporate 3-D layers of child-pleasing elements into a 26-foot-long museum-like diorama that we hand-carved and hand-etched into crystal.
The wall is filled with life-size fluttering butterflies, tiny creatures for kids to discover, and leaves whirled by the wind, all of which are illuminated with warm programmed LEDs that shift colors and patterns at the walking pace of passersby. These shifts make the leaves appear to dance and the butterflies fly across the full width of the wall.
Our dynamic “moving” wall at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus also serves as a wayfinding icon that keeps hundreds of passersby each hour moving in the correct circulation pattern on a magical "Forest Path" (an inlaid swirling floor design) toward their destinations and the elevators.
Brad Feinknopf for Nationwide Children's Hospital
Besides pleasing their big donors and delighting their young patients, Nationwide Children's asked us to create a piece that would integrate into their highly imaginative "Magic Forest" environment, created by renowned museum-exhibit designer Ralph Appelbaum.
Playful, Applebaum-designed images from nature were printed on walls, constructed in 3-D, and carved from solid wood. An interactive play area features two-story trees and oversize whimsical animals carved by merry-go-round artisans.
We worked with the interior designers, hospital staff, and their very "hands-on" lead donor, Abigail Wexner, to continue their theme, philanthropic branding, WELCOME messaging, dimensionality, and warm glowing color palette in our Donor Wall.
Colored LEDs in shades of warm white, pale pink, and amber are mounted above and below the four layers of art and glass panels. When edge-lit, glass acts like a fiber optic, carrying the color through the 1/2" thick crystal panels and making the art elements “pop” like a 3-D hologram.
Brad Feinknopf for Nationwide Children's Hospital
We achieved the dimensionality by creating a deep curved architectural surround to hold four layers of dynamic images, including dewdrops on the grasses, butterflies (Nationwide's new logo), chrysalises, snails, bees, flowers, and hummingbirds. In addition, on the top layer of the bevel-edged crystal, dedication text and donor names float in columns on every panel. All texts are carved in deep, V-cut monument-style letterforms.
Many weeks of careful lighting engineering and intricate programming with electronics engineer Tim Feldman were spent in the dark hours of the night to achieve the mood of the forest and the playful movements of each fluttering butterfly and swirling leaf in the glowing crystal.
It was very satisfying to create a light-filled installation that will warmly greet children and their anxious families and set a positive mood for the care to come.
We also loved continuing our working relationship of many years with this virtual city of caregivers (more than 5,000 on staff), having previously designed and fabricated the celebration wall (depicting the bright blue and gold collision of subatomic particles) in their Research Institute and the innovative hand-painted "circus horse" (below) for their Center for Child and Family Advocacy.
A Time to Reflect and Renew
Next week on Monday, July 21 we begin our Studio’s annual summer closure, a time for us to rest, renew, refresh, and think deeply about the meaning of what we do. Sometimes in the rush of day-to-day deadlines -- especially right now when we just wrapped up two big projects and completed a revamp of our website -- we have to stay focused on the details to get everything done.
But when we have a chance to step back and breathe, we always remember the big picture. Let me tell you a story that speaks to this.
Watercolor of St. Paul’s Cathedral by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd In 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed most of the city and reduced its venerable Old St. Paul’s Cathedral to charred timber and rubble. The famous architect Sir Christopher Wren was hired to design a new church. After many plans and revisions, construction finally began in 1677. Thomas Strong, Wren's master stonemason, laid the first stone of the new cathedral.
Christopher Wren’s plans for the dome of St. Paul’s One day Sir Christopher was surveying the progress the men were making. He stopped at one stonecutter and asked him what he was doing.
“I’m cutting blocks of stone,” the man said, a bit testily. “Each one the same as the next. And the next. And the next. Every bloody stone just exactly the same.”
Sir Christopher wisely moved on. He approached a second stonecutter and asked the man what he was doing. “Why, I’m earning a living to feed my family,” he replied, apparently puzzled that anyone, least of all the boss, should need to ask.
Then Sir Christopher spotted a third stonecutter, very intent on his work. “What are you doing, good sir?” asked the architect.
The man looked up at him. He was covered with stone dust and his hands were heavily callused. He looked tired, but he looked satisfied, too.
“I am building a monument to the glory of God,” he said.
Photos at left by Gabriel Harber
The joy and satisfaction we take in our work depends in large part on the context in which we hold that work. For me, designing and carving architectural art glass is not just about sandblasting tiny lines and curves into panels of crystal, or even about running a successful small business in a field I love.
It’s about creating timeless works of art that deeply honor the donors, institutions and staff members who are making vital and heartfelt contributions toward the betterment of our world. I myself feel honored to be a part of their endeavors.
And that’s what I’ll be thinking about in the coming three weeks as I rest, relax and refresh my energies for an exciting autumn in the Studio. We'll be back at work on Monday, August 11, ready to hear about your new projects!
P.S. I hope you'll enjoy browsing through our new site to see what we've been up to! Besides being a wonderful catalogue of our past projects, the message that this new site expresses is our deep commitment to timeless architectural art.
Unveiling Our Digital Donor Recognition
This is the time of year when we gear up for attending our first philanthropy conference of the year -- the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which is meeting in Atlanta next week.
Before each event like this we design and email a special invitation to our email list, which many of you might not have a chance to see. (If you'd like to be on our list, use the link at the right to email me.)
We put all of our design creativity into these pieces, so I have decided to start posting them here for your enjoyment.
This one also announces the unveiling at the AFP show of our new DIGITAL DONOR RECOGNITION offerings. We are very excited about the possiblities for marrying our permanent monument-style Donor Art with the amazing capability of digital technology. Read on!
Fundraising Wisdom From a Woman With Heart
During an interview with our writer/researcher, a delightful client of ours, Pat Burns,
president of the Miller-Dwan Foundation, had some compelling things to say about philanthropy and how she works with her Donors. Her insights are both wise
and touching, and I want to share them with you. (The photos accompanying this blog are from the Donor Art
Glass projects we did for Pat at Solvey Hospice House and the Amberwing Center for children, teens, young adults and families struggling to cope with mental health and substance use. Both are located in Duluth, Minnesota.
What prompted you to choose an artist like Christina to do your Donor Recognition as opposed to one of the other Recognition companies?
There's a marked difference in the artistry. We felt the project demanded the ability to not just make an intellectual connection with people, it needed to make an emotional and spiritual connection. The engagement of donors in philanthropy is really one that comes from the heart, and unfortunately so many recognition systems come only from the head. They are only about, "Here's your name on the wall, isn't that wonderful, look at you, you did so much." They don't get what philanthropy is all about.
Philanthropy is really an act of love. Love needs to be
communicated with an emotional and spiritual underpinning. It needs to be
recognized in a way that is loving and beautiful and reflects the greater part
of us. It needs to be inspirational, to come from a place that isn't simply
intellectual. Philanthropy isn't just from the mind, it isn't just about show,
it's about a grander purpose. Christina as an artist has a way of expressing
that grander purpose that exists behind the philanthropy.
Some folks dismiss philanthropists as people who just want big tax write offs.
What we are truly talking about is philanthropy is in its purest form — and when I am working with people, I don't want it to be about the tax benefit. My experience is that people want to be part of something bigger. They really want a deep engagement in things that they believe in. A simple name list doesn't convey that level of engagement. It doesn't go to a deeper belief system.
If donors are just doing it for tax purposes, our job is to remind them of the grandness of the act so that the next time they step forward to do it, they get this inner stirring that says, "This is really bigger than deductions, really a part of something bigger and more important. I am about changing the world."
The artistry in Christina's Donor Recognition elevates the philanthropic act and helps people really understand the grandness of it. That's where everybody else doing Recognition pales in comparison.
So there's a way in which you use Christina's recognition to teach people the real meaning of their gift. I bet they love that!
People are so moved, they cry in front of these Donor Walls. I'll tell you, after we did the first project with Christina's Donor Wall, it was a WHOLE lot easier to do the second one. People GET IT when you go out and talk with them about it -- especially the Donor Wall Christina did for Amberwing.
Our text was, "Love is a little word. People make it big." That's what it's about. They were very moved. And the design — it was a grand presentation of this universe that the Donors were having impact on. They become more important in the universe — and they ARE more important in the universe because they are doing something for hundreds of people who they don't really know, who they may never meet.
I think especially for the hospice project and the kids' mental health project we did, people were really engaged with their hearts in the giving. If I had done a dry and boring Donor Wall, they probably would have been fine with it because that's what they are used to seeing everywhere else. But because we did something different — something deeper — it elevated everything about the act of giving, it elevated everything the community had come together to do.
What's really cool is
that the families who come in to use these facilities are inspired by these
walls, especially the kids. Our kids' mental health project is using the Donor
Walls now as part of their program. They have added a mindfulness piece to the
program so that they go and stand before the Donor Wall with the universe and
the dewdrops and the fish and the stars and everything.
Then they read through Maya Angelou's poem, they talk about the poem, they talk about having these people [the Donors] care so much about them that they created this facility where they [the kids] can come receive care.
Strong women
and
strong men
protect the children
tend the ailing,
care for the aged
and in fact,
reassure
the entire world.
—Maya Angelou
They look at the Donor names and the text and the facilitators use that to say to these children, "This is a part of healing because this community loves you." A bunch of names on the wall would never do that. I am deeply grateful that we have Christina's work here. To do anything less would be to diminish all the work that went into creating this facility.
* * *
Thank you, Pat. It was an honor to be a part of your loving and healing mission.
In the News!
I'm proud to say that our award-winning Donor Recognition Art appears this week on the front page of the McMorrow Healthcare Facilities Management Report.
This image of the nurse and baby is taken from the luminous Heritage Wall
we created for St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, CO.
we created for St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, CO.
The complete text of the McMorrow article appears at the top of their Featured Products page. How nice to see Donor Recognition getting recognized!
Our Heartfelt Wish for You This Season
I wanted to share some spiritual beauty with you at this both difficult and blessed time. Please note that we will have our annual winter closure from Dec. 22 to Jan. 8.
The Great Healers: Gratitude and Beauty
Recently I was asked to reflect on some fascinating questions: How does the Donor Recognition work we do for healthcare institutions directly contribute to their quality of care? Do our installations affect patient outcomes, and if so, how?
These questions were on the application for the Nightingale Product Design Awards, which honor excellence and innovation in healthcare products. They are sponsored by the Center for Health Design, the Healthcare Design Conference and Contract magazine.
I'll share my answers with you in a moment, but first I want to announce that we WON the Nightingale Silver Award for Architectural Products! It was a unique experience for me, "pitting" our luminous carved crystal against products like privacy curtains, nurses stations and antimicrobial drawer pulls.
One of the Nightingale judges examines our work at the Healthcare Design Conference last weekend.
I believe deeply that our Art Glass pieces are every bit as important in a hospital as these more obviously practical products. And that's what I explained to the Nightingale panel of architects, facility designers and interior designers who were the judges.
Our Donor Recognition not only honors our clients’ most generous donors, it inspires new donations that become the capital and operating costs of the whole hospital. Heartfelt, top-quality Donor Recognition is pivotal in building and maintaining these institutions as a community asset.
Our Donor Wall at the Eccles Critical Care Pavilion in Salt Lake City reads, "We are all members of a single family, the family of humankind."
In addition, the exquisite imagery and inspiring words on our artwork promote confidence in patients and a high sense of self-worth in professional and support staff. Our luminous panels also transmit, celebrate and reaffirm a hospital’s mission and values. They help brand an institution -- a vital contribution in today’s competitive market.
Donor Wall with olive leaves at San Francisco's Jewish Family and Children's Services
Evidence-Based Design has shown that fine art -- especially when it includes beautiful images from nature, as ours does -- contributes significantly to a patient’s recovery by measurably reducing stress and pain. Dr. Upali Nanda, one of the leading researchers in Evidence-based Design, writes, “Viewing artwork with appropriate nature content has been seen to reduce stress and pain perception, as measured by physiological outcomes such as blood pressure, heart-rate, and skin conductance, in addition to self-report measures.
Jain Malkin, the renowned healthcare interior designer, says, "Real art -- as opposed to decorative art -- touches the soul and reaches the viewer emotionally. It expresses energy, life force, and has deep spiritual meaning that can help the viewer transform pain and suffering to reach a higher state of consciousness."
Each of our pieces of chisel-cut and etched Art Glass is designed as a work of fine art that transmits inspiring messages of spirituality and gratitude. Gratitude has a documented impact on physical and emotional health.
Detail of inspirational images and text on our Donor Wall at Children's Hospital Boston
The positive effect of integrating one-of-a-kind, inspirational fine artwork into hospital lobbies was testified to by keynote speaker Knut Bergsland in his keynote at the Healthcare Design Conference in 2005. In describing the impact of hospital lobbies on actual health outcomes and the development of goodwill in patients, families, visitors and staff entering a medical facility, he said, “People’s first impressions when they walk into a building have a disproportionate impact on the rest of their experience there."
Our products are also the vehicles for inspirational messages, welcoming patients and their families as they enter the hospital, and setting a positive and reassuring tone for their whole visit.
I am honored that the team of judges for the Nightingale Awards recognized the important and multifaceted role our Donor Recognition plays in the field of healthcare.
I want to close by saying that I love what I do! I love listening to clients tell me what they need, I love designing, I love honoring the generous souls who support healthcare institutions, and most of all I love that our Art Glass is helping patients heal and return home quickly to their families.
A heartfelt thank you to all our clients for giving us the opportunity to do this work,
An Opportunity to Share My Thoughts
"Necessity truly can be the mother of invention —
if you have people supporting you
and helping you hold a positive vision."
I am delighted to report that my guest editorial about the importance of strategic and sincere collaboration has just been published in the North Bay Business Journal of Santa Rosa, CA, where our Studio is located. You can read this piece on our website.
A Mission That Comes From the Heart
Shh! Sneak preview of the Amberwing Donor Wall
One of the best things about creating Donor Recognition Art is that we get to meet and support people who are doing amazing things in the world.
Our chief installer, Charly Rinn, and I just got back from installing a Donor Wall at Amberwing, a new mental health and chemical dependency treatment center for children and teens in a beautiful wooded area of Duluth, MN. It is scheduled to open this fall.
Amberwing is a special project by the wonderful people at the Miller-Dwan Foundation of Duluth. It is rooted in the principles that mental illness is treatable, suicide is preventable, and lives can be transformed with the right help at the right time.
The facility will provide intensive treatment using evidence-based practices as well as innovative, holistic care. It will also provide support, education and assistance to parents, caregivers and the community.
There is a huge need for this kind of project. One of the teens quoted on the Miller-Dwan Foundation website put it eloquently:
"A lot of people don't know how to get the help they need — or where to turn for help. There's a world that kids experience that isn't just about 'cheering up.' There's a lot more behind depression. People need the help, but they're so ashamed of it."
--Betsy Johnson, 17, Duluth
An Amberwing is a tiny golden-winged dragonfly. As the foundation explains, “Among the most ancient of living creatures, the dragonfly connotes themes of transformation, emergence and flight. Much like a child, the Amberwing dragonfly experiences a metamorphosis as it matures, emerging from the water and taking flight. Its bright colors take time to develop, reflecting the idea that with maturity, our own true colors come forth.
“Even with two damaged wings, the Amberwing can fly. A visual symbol for strength, resilience and light, the Amberwing dragonfly helps us see through illusions and allow our own light to shine forth.”
This is the second Donor Wall we have created for Miller-Dwan. The first was unveiled in 2007 at their Solvay Hospice House, the only residential hospice in Minnesota north of the Twin Cities.
I am proud and touched to be able to support Miller-Dwan in all of their heartfelt projects.
The Best Way Forward Is Together
“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.”
NADEEM ASLAM
Two weeks ago I attended an event called LocalMade at Gensler's San Francisco headquarters. Its goal was to connect Bay Area commercial, residential and interior designers with Bay Area artisans of national repute.
Traditional wrought-iron guild sign
of a German glazier
of a German glazier
I was there showing our carved and etched Art Glass. Other artisans came to display their furniture, tile, rugs, lighting, metalwork, even concrete products. As I talked with my fellow attendees and the designers, it seemed like the event had a “guild” feel to it.
Medieval guilds were associations of trades- or craftsmen skilled in one particular field. LocalMade was a meeting of creative people from one particular geographical area. But what if we applied a broader interpretation to the term “guild” and the concept of “buy local”?
The essence of both these concepts is mutual interest, mutual benefit and support. Personally, I absolutely understand that nothing gets done unless people have a sense of good will and connection. What if we built a network of people based on those qualities?
I’m not just talking about vendors and suppliers, I’m talking about people who need product, people who design product, people who are visionaries and who are stewarding Donors for new projects. We are all connected — most especially by the sense of good will and appreciation we have for each other.
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment
of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING
This is why we are trying to pull together our whole network. It’s time for us to come together, help each other out, keep each other inspired. We share a common commitment to the highest quality work and an awareness of the many levels — including the spiritual level — on which we work.
So let’s really link together and keep abreast of what each other is doing. Here are some ways that we like:
- Become a subscriber to our blog:
Please invite us — and each other — to do the same. Please network and spread the good will. And please call if you have any great ideas about things we can do or create together!
As a close-knit tribe of superb creative people, we refer each other as the best person in the world to do glass in Chicago, carpeting in Alabama, metalwork in New York. We build a creative circle of people who truly care about their craft and about the world.
I mentioned that the Gensler event had a “guild” feel to it. Instead of one particular trade or craft, though, the “guild” I envision is about a level of quality and awareness. It’s about helping each other with resources and networking and staying inspired.
We also need to help keep each other positive in these times. I am so aware that in this economic climate of caution, when one person says, “Uh-oh,” other people do the same thing, almost automatically. Pessimism is contagious — and it’s bad for everyone.
"Because of the interconnectedness of all minds, affirming a positive vision
may be about the most sophisticated action any one of us can take."
Futurist and visionary Willis Harman
What if we spread optimism as readily? I was talking to a local glass provider the other day who told me that his business is expanding. He’s getting more orders — and for exciting projects. Architects have started hiring back some of the folks they laid off. For us, we’re working on a project in the D.C. area, we just completed two projects in Chicago, and two new jobs came through just last week.
If we tell each other the good news, we’ll all start to feel more inspired and optimistic. We’ll get more confident, we’ll invest more in the future, and we won’t be constrained by the fear factor.
Things are moving, people have exciting products and projects to offer. Let’s support each other and let’s stay connected. Let’s be aware of who are fellow visionaries and who are the top quality people in the country. Let’s create and share the wealth, with heart and abundant good will.
Photos of our carved and etched crystal Recognition, from top: