McMaster University - Internal Medicine Award - 2012

Some of my favourite jobs are those that require some extra thought, research, and innovation to pull it all together. Take for example a job I've done for a few years now: the MacMaster University Internal Medicine award. each year they approach me with a challenge: to design and create a few sample pieces inspired by the field of Internal Medicine, and from these samples they choose what will eventually become the finished awards to be presented to their honourees.

I love this. I won't lie, the task can seem daunting at times, but the challenge is part of the fun. In past years I've made figures, both masculine and feminine, with hand sculpted bodies resembling a single upward curving strand of DNA. (Click here to view an example) I've made solid pieces of glass inside of which there were thousands of coloured shapes resembling red blood vessels. For 2012 I made a flame, representing knowledge and advancement, taking inspiration from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of a torch that lights our way in the dark, and from its role in civilization itself.

See why I love this? I spend time researching, sitting in front of books and the computer looking for both inspiration and the subject of the piece. Our bodies are full of incredible things, some of which are beautiful enough to be called art in their own right: neurons, blood cells, the elaborate patterns within the's iris - it's all right there, waiting to inspire us. As I read my mind is constantly going over the glassblowing processes I could use to create what I'm seeing in the texts, planning the next step. It's a really fun journey into someone else's field, and an interesting process thinking how to show a piece of their world, by using the tools of mine.

Click here to go to the awards and commissions information page (link opens in a new window

If you are not on my main gallery of sample custom awards, click here to return there now

McMaster University - Internal Medicine Award - 2012

Some of my favourite jobs are those that require some extra thought, research, and innovation to pull it all together. Take for example a job I've done for a few years now: the MacMaster University Internal Medicine award. each year they approach me with a challenge: to design and create a few sample pieces inspired by the field of Internal Medicine, and from these samples they choose what will eventually become the finished awards to be presented to their honourees.

I love this. I won't lie, the task can seem daunting at times, but the challenge is part of the fun. In past years I've made figures, both masculine and feminine, with hand sculpted bodies resembling a single upward curving strand of DNA. (Click here to view an example) I've made solid pieces of glass inside of which there were thousands of coloured shapes resembling red blood vessels. For 2012 I made a flame, representing knowledge and advancement, taking inspiration from the Greek myth of Prometheus, of a torch that lights our way in the dark, and from its role in civilization itself.

See why I love this? I spend time researching, sitting in front of books and the computer looking for both inspiration and the subject of the piece. Our bodies are full of incredible things, some of which are beautiful enough to be called art in their own right: neurons, blood cells, the elaborate patterns within the's iris - it's all right there, waiting to inspire us. As I read my mind is constantly going over the glassblowing processes I could use to create what I'm seeing in the texts, planning the next step. It's a really fun journey into someone else's field, and an interesting process thinking how to show a piece of their world, by using the tools of mine.

Click here to go to the awards and commissions information page (link opens in a new window

If you are not on my main gallery of sample custom awards, click here to return there now