Profiles
Tone Ørvik
Max Stewart
President
Max Stewart is a UK/Spain-based sculptor and researcher working primarily in the fields of pâte de verre and cast glass. Since taking his Ph.D. in 2010, Max has been teaching Glass Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. His collaboration with Tone Ørvik led to the successful realisation of their book ‘Pâte de Verre: The Material of Time’ in 2022.
Max’s Ph.D. study investigated the colouring process of Amalric Walter (1870-1959), the French pâte de verre artist, and placed it into a modern studio context. It also repositioned the historic and scientific analysis of pâte de verre from being seen as a tiny esoteric process with a one-hundred-year-old history to one which is universal and spans five millennia. Max’s thesis has been requested by major research institutes across the world including the Rakow Research Library in Corning, NY, USA, the archives of the Musée de l’École de Nancy, and the Inventaire General de Lorraine, France.
Tone Orvik
Director
Tone is a sculptor and portraitist who uses cast glass and Pâte de Verre as primary materials. During her thirty-year career having carved stone, cast bronze, and worked with ceramic processes, she continued her investigation into materials as expressive narratives by starting to cast glass in 2005.
Coming from a background exhibiting in prestigious, contemporary glass galleries and shows in the US and Canada, Tone´s MA in Glass at Wolverhampton University, UK, focused on varying degrees of translucency and opacity as narrative elements in cast glass. Her present interest of research is sustainability in glass, and the new narrative aesthetic of recycled glass.
Tone also works as a writer of fiction and non-fiction, and has recently co-authored the comprehensive book ‘Pâte de Verre: The Material of Time’ with Dr. Max Stewart.
Tone is Canadian-Norwegian, based in Norway, exhibiting primarily in the US.
Evelyn Gottschall Baker
Vice President
Evelyn came to kiln-formed glass from a background as a test engineer. Research and investigations into technical processes continue to drive her approach to the non-traditional pâte de verre that she uses to replicate bones, skulls, and other natural objects found in nature. She seeks out the beauty and intriguing aspects of our natural environments and strives to capture realism of nature in her sculptures. She then pushes the boundaries of pâte de verre with long, low firing schedules and her no-wax, no-mold technique.
Evelyn´s work has been included in several international shows including Bullseye Glass Company's Emerge 2018, in which she received Honorable Mention for Bones-Group. In Glass Prize UK 2020 she was awarded Highly Commendable for her work Balance.
Evelyn is a consummate researcher and eager to share. She teaches through workshops, including at Bullseye Glass Co. and Warm Glass, UK.
Working towards sustainability, Evelyn´s studio and home in Colorado, US, are 80% heated by the 50 solar panels that she installed in 2014.
Tali Grinshpan
Secretary
Tali has been working with pâte de verre since 2014, developing her own non-traditional method of casting glass. With MA in psychology, she examines the human condition, utilizing glass as an analogy while challenging the material in different ways to express her ideas. Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tali moved to the United States in 2004 and currently lives in Walnut Creek, California.
Tali’s work was selected as a finalist at The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa Japan in 2016. She is the first prize winner of The Glass Prize 2017 international competition, UK. Her work was selected for the New Glass Review 39, publishes by Corning Museum of Glass. In 2019 her second solo exhibition “Longing for the (Home)land” opened at Bullseye Gallery in the Bay Area, California. In February 2020 she has curated an exhibition called “Particles” at Abrams Claghorn Gallery in Albany, CA. In 2022 her piece “Homeland I” won the first place at the Glass Art Society exhibition at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA.
While continuing the inquiry in her own work, Tali is also eager to contribute to the discourse on contemporary glass art, particularly through teaching and curating exhibitions.
Tali´s work is exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and appears in numerous publications.
Dorothy Miller
Treasurer
Dorothy is a US-based avocational glass artist. From a finance and project management background, she fell in love with glass five years ago. Her focus of inquiry is cast glass and pâte de verre.
Dorothy has been taking classes with leading casting glass artists. She has also been an assistant to Evelyn Gottschall Baker. She keeps her own studio, exhibits at local shows and is represented by local galleries.
Dorothy´s passion for glass combines her banking and management background to contribute to the glass world and help drive CPdVA.