Etsy

My name is Mary O'Shea. I grew up near the port town of Portland, Oregon. I then moved to another port town of Honolulu, Hawaii, when I was 25 years-old. I then moved to yet another port town of Key West, Florida at age 38. After living in Key West for 11 years, I've recently moved back to my home port of Portland, Oregon to be closer to family and re-discover my "roots". I've fallen in love with my home-town. This watery journey I've been on for half my life makes me realize one very real thing...I seem to need to live near the water. My art form, fusing glass, is like the water...the texture, the light it reflects, the shimmer, the depth and shallowness, the movement, the rhythm, the continually changing color, and the wonder of what's beneath the surface.

My experience/experiment with glass is not a planned one. A tiny fluke of a miniscule 4-day glass class in Portland, Oregon 20 years ago. Pure luck. It found me. I've been making my way in this world of glass for 20 years now. My daily glass experience or 'meditation' I call it, moves quickly like a river current...I tap into and flow with it until I'm spent. My feelings of that daily drift in time are captured in the finished piece.

Since I've lived near the water my whole live, I've become my environment...a Great Blue Heron one day, a White Egret another day, a Goliath Grouper fish the next or the sand and water on the beach. I become the anima of each piece and rejoice when the glass has cooled so I can invite people in to see the wondrous nature of a coastal lifestyle.

I've been documenting, like a biologist the fish, birds, water and people of my environment for the last 20 years. I believe artists naturally reflect their environment. I live in places I love, and I always try to do the area justice with my interpretation.