IRISH-AMERICAN-L Archives
Archiver > IRISH-AMERICAN > 2006-10 > 1161914085
From: "Jean R." <>
Subject: [IRISH-AMER] Kerry-born James SCANLON - Reviving Ireland's StainedGlass Tradition
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:54:45 -0700
SNIPPET: Internationally-known, versatile contemporary artisan James SCANLON was born in Brosna, in north County Kerry. Coming from a cattle farming background where money and commodities were scarce, James' parents had to be resourceful to get by. A farmer to his bones, SCANLON's father never quite accepted his son's chosen career path, per article in the Spring 2000 issue of "The World of Hibernia" magazine. Initially interested in film and having studied to be a mime artist as a young man, James found himself gravitating from the performing arts to fine art. He was to find his true calling in creating vibrant stained glass windows, often with abstract themes and great intensity of color - some of his work can be seen in the chapel at Glenstal Abbey in Co. Limerick - and in sculpture and fabric art.
In 1989, SCANLON was commissioned to provide a public artwork in Sneem, Co. Kerry, where he enlisted the help of local masons who built four sandstone and slate pyramidal structures with echoes of the ancient past on rocky ground at the edge of town - easing the transition from town to river in the space.
SCANLON and fellow artist, Maud COTTER, have done much to revive a once-proud Irish artistic tradition.of working in stained glass.
In Harry CLARKE and Evie HONE, Ireland produced great stained glass artists, but it was the painter Sarah PURSER who, in 1903, with playwright Edward MARTYN, established the renowned stained glass studio An Tur Gloine (The Glass Tower), within which they flourished. So in a way, modern Irish stained glass emerged from the literary movement that embodied a Celtic revival at the turn of the 19th century. An Tur Gloine was a conscious effort to provide a genuine, indigenous craft alternative to the commercial product widely imported at the time. Other fine artists associated with it were Michael HEALY and Wilhelmina GEDDES. CLARKE (1889-1931), who worked in the family church decoration business, was a gifted illustrator. He applied this style to glass in both religious and secular works - his Honan Chapel Windows in Cork City are regarded as perhaps his greatest achievement. HONE (1894-1955) came from a well-known artistic family and worked inventively within a tradition of Christian iconography.
This thread: