Stacey Neff

Stacey Neff's contemporary sculpture is born of fire. "Glass blowing uses heat and gravity and happens in real time, like music," she says. "Once I saw it, it was all I wanted to do." She was just eighteen when she began working with glass, but over time, she longed to push the limits of the material.

"I began using automotive materials like fiberglass and epoxy resin. First I blow the glass as a kind of armature, then I add layers to it, then cut it up and put it back together."



This unique process stabilizes the glass and allows her to create very large forms and long, sinuous shapes. Neff's pieces seem to twist, flow, or spin like biological shapes from another world. "It's like bio-mythology," she explains. "I imagine them." But these days, Neff has a passion besides her own art. As director of the New Mexico Experimental Glass Workshop, she helps other talented, mature artists work in a medium that would otherwise be inaccessible.






"One of Santa Fe's greatest resources is the quality of so many artists here. But, learning glass is very technical and takes a long time," she says. "So, the artist does the design, I facilitate, and a team of professionals produce the work." Neff envisions a broader use of glass in art and she's making it happen--one hot moment at a time.


Learn more about the rest of Santa Fe's featured edgy artists here