Marlene Rose

"My goal is to create life in whatever I make. In the ordinary, I see the extraordinary. They are excuses to imagine other worlds, prods to a future we have half-forgotten. Maybe these pieces are only hardened sand. What you see is what you put there to see."

At an early age, Marlene Rose was a painter, sculptor, and dancer. She found in the process of casting glass a combination of all that she loved and refers to sandcasting glass as a dangerous dance between heat and light.

Although the process that Rose uses is relatively new, it is based on the thousands year-old tradition of bronze casting. Each piece is hand cast from molten glass into a unique modern work of art that resonates with reference and allusions to other cultures and civilizations.

While attending Tulane University Marlene had the good fortune to study under, Gene Koss, one of the founders of the glass movement, which changed the course of her life. After receiving her BFA with Honors, Rose went on to earn her MFA at California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA and continued her studies at Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle, WA.