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  Leslie Bostrom

  Leslie Bostrom and Richard Goulis

  Leslie Bostrom, born in 1951, received a BA from the University of Maine and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is an associate professor of art at Brown University.

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  Daniel Clayman

  Daniel Clayman and Richard Goulis

  Born in 1957 in Massachusetts, Daniel Clayman trained as a theater and modern dance lighting designer. He received a BFA in glass from the Rhode Island School of Design and has a studio in East Providence, Rhode Island.

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  Bob Dilworth

  Bob Dilworth and Richard Goulis

  Bob Dilworth, born in 1951, received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; he is currently professor and chair of the art department at the University of Rhode Island. He resides in Providence.

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  Steven Easton

  Steven Easton and Richard Goulis

  Born in New York City in 1961, Steven Easton came to Providence in 1978 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, specifically to study in the glass department. He works from his studio in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

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  Yizhak Elyashiv

  Yizhak Elyashiv and Richard Goulis

  Born in Israel in 1964, Yizhak Elyashiv received a BFA from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives in Providence and teaches Foundation studies at RISD and Rhode Island College.

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  James Reynolds

  James Reynolds and Richard Goulis

  James Reynolds, born in 1962, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, and studied metalsmithing in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. He works from his studio in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Kenn Speiser

  Kenn Speiser and Richard Goulis

  Kenn Speiser, born in 1946, grew up in New York, and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in sculpture. He has remained in Providence, where he actively combines his talents as a sculptor and printmaker with various business and non-profit endeavors.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Wendy Wahl

  Wendy Wahl and Richard Goulis

  A native of California, Wendy Wahl was born in 1961 and received a BA from California State University, Northridge, before leaving for the Rhode Island School of Design, where she obtained an MAE. Known for her sculptural work with paper and site-specific installations, she lives in West Kingston, Rhode Island.

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  McDonald Wright

  McDonald Wright and Richard Goulis

  McDonald Wright transferred from the Pennsylvania College of Technology to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he graduated with a BFA in photography. He lives in Providence, and continues to use a manual camera and film photography over digital technology.

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  Howard Ben Tré

  Howard Ben Tré and Richard Goulis

  Howard Ben Tré’s sculpture, and especially, as we shall see, his public works, are permeated by idealism. Even when his sculptures are intended for more private viewing, they draw on forms that are at once simple and universal. Ben Tré recounts that he began to cast glass when he looked at the molten liquid and realized that it was in essence very similar to molten bronze. In casting it, he lets it do what comes naturally to it. For similar reasons, he doesn’t artificially color his glass, preferring the watery green color that is natural to it, though he sometimes tints the glass by adding metal oxides. And although Ben Tré is often identified as a sculptor who works with glass, he has explored a number of other materials, which he treats with equal respect. Metal appears as cladding, adding a thin skin over areas of the sculptures. Or it may be an insert into a glass form. Sometimes it is a counterelement, providing a sharp geometry to the softer curve of a glass form, an exterior frame, or an accent or band whose opacity accentuates the luminosity of the glass. Rubbing inner cavities with metal oxide, Ben Tré creates mysterious inner shadows. But there is never any trickery involved. Ben Tré continues to combine his work in the public realm with the creation of individual sculptures. These two modes play off each other, sparking new ideas and new forms. In the end, it is clear that they emanate from the same source—a sense of our common humanity and a desire to use art to bring people together. Ben Tré’s public and private commissions and projects return us to the realm where utopian visions and social ideals don’t seem so foolish after all. They remind us that dreams take root in the places in which they are cultivated.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Jonathan Bonner

  Jonathan Bonner and Richard Goulis

  Making art is a marinade of questions. The questions concern everything from major concepts to small details. Solutions arrive from constant immersion in the marinade.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Ruth Dealy

  Ruth Dealy and Richard Goulis

  I am a painter who has lived and worked in Providence, Rhode Island for the past forty-one years. I received my BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1971 and my MFA in 1973. My paintings have been in the form of two series: one of self-portraits and the other of landscapes, both interior and exterior, which act as secular altarpieces. Having fixed subjects has allowed me to submit one vision fully to time, light and mood so that there is a scientific as well as spiritual, element.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Jacqueline Ott

  Jacqueline Ott and Richard Goulis

  My current work consists of geometric shapes that are built by the systematic application of repeated marks to a visual lined structure. It is derived from my previous work where the marks were hung on a linear structure to create an allover painting or drawing. I set up a defined format within which to work because it allows me to concentrate on inventing unique markings and systematic methods of configuring the marks. The mark determines the structure and vice versa. The process of integrating the mark within the structure determines the image. The work follows the logic of the system on which it is based – nothing frivolous is included. Within the system, random actions can occur. The pencil lines that define the underlying structure are visible and important to the whole. I am occasionally asked if a computer is used to develop the work. The answer is no. The work is enhanced by the subtle differences that occur when the work is developed and executed by hand.

  networksrhodeisland.org

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  Elizabeth Pannell and James Watkins

  Elizabeth Pannell, James Watkins, and Richard Goulis

  Life’s course does not always follow the planned route. These days, as time allows, I am drawn to the sea, to bask in its restorative powers. I was raised on the water, the daughter of a sailor, and have always had an emotional response to the sea’s energy. I paint from life, plein air, in locations which are imbued with peace and tranquility. In response to the elements, awash in color and light, I work to express this feeling of calm inspired by nature. My paintings are studies, impressions of a day, a location, a time of year, a moment, a memory. –Elizabeth Pannell, 2008 Watkins’ work is about contemplation as much as it is about the action of making. His work slows down our perceptual process so that we can consider the possibilities of interpretation rather than having the obvious and often literal shapes name themselves. The universality of his forms reflects whole worlds of faunal, floral and artifactual antecedents. We soon find ourselves asking questions. Does the transparency of a glass form complicate its exterior shape or help us perceive its major volumes? Does a shaped outline in a relief derive from a three-dimensional work or vice versa? Are the other elements which give context to his pieces like wall plaques or horizontal bases integral to his objects or apart from them? Unlike most objects in our modern world, the things that Watkins makes afford his viewers the chance to think, to consider the possibilities, to contemplate, and thus to imagine. From: A Pattern Language: The Sculpture of James Watkins by Ronald J. Onorato

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  Toots Zynsky

  Toots Zynsky and Richard Goulis

  I began working with glass in 1970 because it is an extraordinarily versatile material and I believed that there were endless unexplored possibilities. I still believe this . I employ the vessel as my vehicle of expression because of it’s basic three dimensionality; giving me the possibility of working in 2 and 3 dimensions at once, with endless multiple surfaces and views – both interior and exterior. The structure of my pieces (made up of thousands and thousands of colored glass threads thermally fused together and then formed by hand while hot) and the color are one and the same and this purity is important to me.

  networksrhodeisland.org