Home and Away (Light Side) by Collaborators: Alisa Looney & Janet Schill
Wall Piece
Pre-enameled steel white board, Liquid Form Enamel, Watercolor Enamel, ¼ inch copper tubing, Stainless Steel wire, stainless swivel; 14 ga. steel, copper wire, wood screws, wax
Granular spray liquid form enamel and sgraffito, brush-paint watercolor enamel & sgraffito, kiln-fire layers.
22 x 11.25 x 11 inches
Alisa Looney: Sculptures by Alisa Looney are in many private and public collections including Maryhill Museum of Art in WA, and Northwest U.S. cities. Her enamel works have exhibited in TES Biennials - Alchemy 4-7, and published in GRAINS OF GLASS and The Art of Fine Enameling, Second Ed. In addition to studio and commission work, she teaches online and in-person. She received her BFA in 1983 from BSU, ran a Design business, began Welding Sculptures in 1998, and in 2010 became immersed in Enameling - merging her sculpture with narratives in glass on metal.
The purpose of my work is to inspire care for our planet and each other, and to bring attention to the interdependence of all living things.
I shape and fabricate metal into open, flowing forms, portraying movement and the expression of life. Narrative imagery is fused to the metal surface of sculptures, jewelry, panels and reEnamelware by applying kiln-fired layers of glass enamel.
Janet Schill: Janet Schill is an Illinois-based artist working in glass enamels, printmaking, and mixed media. She teaches art classes and oversees a senior living community gallery. Holding an MFA from Northern Illinois University, she creates small enamel sculptures in her Riverside studio, exploring shared human experience through humor, composition, and personal narrative.
My work brings together drawing, printmaking, metalsmithing, and assemblage disciplines, united by shared attention to line, structure and material.
In recent years, enameling has become the point of convergence for these practices, allowing me to build imagery through surface treatments, while also working dimensionally through sculpture and enamel tiles. I work primarily with copper and steel, selecting each metal for its distinct qualities and for what the piece demands.
My work ultimately aims to transform materials and imagery into moments of reflection, offering viewers a renewed way of seeing the world around us.
We began as Student and Mentor, through online and in-person workshops, and continue with private consulting and a wonderful friendship built on enameling.
We longed to create a collaboration in enamel on steel, and chose the suspended mobile format. Thinking about birds in flight, above mountains, and returning to tree branches and the safety of home. Exploring: adventure/safety, dark/light, home/away.
We each designed & cut steel whiteboard shapes – a bird and a birdhouse, and implemented similar materials and techniques to create harmony. We began with a white on black side and a black on white side for the sgraffito line work, creating contrast while mobile turns. We hand-painted watercolor enamel and sgraffito in kiln-fired layers in chosen color range. Hammered steel tree wall bracket completed the story.
Throughout the process we emailed sketches, model-photos, solved challenges and encouraged each other. It was truly a delight to make this together!
