Glass Art Magazine - March/April 2000
Sarah Hall’s The Color of Light
The artist, the priest, his parishioner and her committee: it sounds like a combination surreal enough for a Peter Greenaway film. Yet these are just the people who have to achieve a meeting of minds whenever a church commissions a set of stained glass windows. It's not easy. Huge gaps can exist between the attitudes, background and sensibilities of these people. Sarah Hall's new book, The Color of Light: Commissioning Stained Glass for a Church, was written in order to bridge these gaps.
Hall's purpose in writing this book is to, "demystify the process of working with stained glass artists and to establish a format for the commissioning process." Few could manage this, but Hall is singularly qualified for the job. An award-winning stained glass artist whose work illuminates churches, synagogues and public buildings across North America, she has necessarily become an expert not only in the art of stained glass, but the art of gaining the trust of diverse committees. Meaningful communication between artist and client is of course the key, but these parties often lack a common language with which to communicate their ideas and dreams about the windows. This can be particularly frustrating for the client, who, since commissioning windows is usually a once in a lifetime opportunity, is necessarily inexperienced. Where can they turn to learn what their role and responsibilities should be, what they should expect of the artist, or even what the difference between good and bad stained glass is? Now, they have somewhere.
Hall begins by paying passionate tribute to her medium. "Stained glass," she writes, "transforms interior space in a way that no other art form can." A stained glass window, she asserts, is both "an arrangement of treated glass pieces in a lead matrix", and "a lasting and integrated part of a church... inspired by and connected to a vast web of people, events and spiritual aspirations." Hall begins with a look at the material itself- a sound choice, since it is impossible not to be swept up in the astonishing beauty and variety of the streaky, reamy, flashed, seedy and crown glass on display. Hall's analysis is equal parts
description and love song to this extraordinary material. It is heartening to see an artist so in love with her medium; it is just this energy which can sweep both readers and clients along in the creative journey which is to come.
The process of turning this raw material into a finished stained glass window is explored next. In the book, as in the studio, design comes first. Hall is at pains to point out that the design does not spring from an artist's navel-gazing, but is the result of an enriching interaction between the artist and several other factors. Those factors include the style of the architecture, the daily and seasonal movement of natural light through the space ("light", she explains, "is life to a stained glass window"), the needs and aspirations of the congregation, and the glorious artistic heritage of the medium of stained glass itself, to which one
may hope to make a meaningful contribution. Fabrication is described and illustrated in some detail; unfortunately, the lack of specific references to illustrations in the text (a deficiency unique to this section of the book) makes the words and pictures harder to connect than they should be. Brief discussions of installation and dalle de verre (the latter might have fit better in the subsequent section) round out the chapter.
The next chapter, "Special Effects: Techniques and Treatments for Glass", is a delight to the initiated, and may prove a revelation for neophytes. Many people return from their first experience of places such as Chartres or Canterbury expressing astonishment at the rich and subtle surface treatments of a material that they had simply assumed to be "colored" glass; this is the chapter for them. A tremendous array of techniques and treatments (painting, silver. stain, etching and sandblasting, to name only a few) are described and vividly illustrated, giving the reader a rich understanding of just how vast a palette stained glass is.
Hall's decision to include a chapter on the history of stained glass is a welcome one. History has not always been fashion- able among contemporary artists, al- though stained glass artists tend to be more conscious than most of the rich tradition of which they are the momentary fringe. Moreover, it enables Hall to discuss the relationship of modern sensibilities to this tradition. The struggle to find a contemporary voice in this most conservative of media is clearly felt in a statement like, "Great church
architecture and great stained glass are always genuine expressions in, of and for their own time." Although she never says so, one suspects that this is one of the reasons why she felt compelled to write this book. A detailed chapter on design explores the role of both artist and client, as well as exploring the factors to be considered when choosing a studio. Design is a complex process that requires meticulous care, since it is the foundation upon which the success or failure of the project rests. Despite its importance, design is the most difficult part of the process for non-artists to understand, and Hall guides the reader expertly through the process of choosing a designer and adopting a style which will be a heightened expression of the community's needs, values and aspirations.
Through much of this section, Hall's lack of enthusiasm for commercial studio work is evident, albeit never stated bluntly. While it is easy to see how this attitude may seem a bit self-serving, it is hard to find fault with her conclusions. The working methods of large commercial studios are not always conducive to the creation of unique and original work. Working with an individual artist is not always the most economically efficient way of producing windows, but it usually produces the best art. There is room for everybody, but clients have to make their choice and live with the consequences; Hall makes sure that they know what is at stake.
The chapter called "Commissioning Stained Glass" is perhaps the single most practically useful for prospective clients, especially those who have not commissioned stained glass before. In it, Hall presents a meticulous step-by-step guide to the commissioning process. Her extensive practical experience, implicit throughout the book, is particularly evident and valuable here. Sections include "planning", "choosing an artist", "design and fabrication" , and "installation and celebration" . Each of these is broken down into a "to do list" (where applicable), and a Q & A. One suspects that Hall has learned some of these answers the hard way, so that we don't have to. What role should donors play in decision-making? Can the committee request free preliminary designs? Should the committee have a contract with the artist? Who pays for the scaffolding during installation? These are questions that would likely never occur to someone new to the process of commissioning windows - until they emerge as knotty problems. The book concludes with a useful appendix on maintenance and restoration, another on resources (mostly, but not exclusively, print) on stained glass and stained glass artists, and a very useful glossary. These sections reinforce the practical, user-friendly aspect of the book.
One other virtue of this book should not pass unacknowledged, and that is the quantity, and quality, of its illustrations. It may seem self-evident that a book written in part to "honor the beauty of glass" (Hall's own words) would have to be beautifully, and colorfully, illustrated. However, we live in a bean-counting age in which the self-evident is often diligently ignored. It takes considerable commitment to produce a book with 85 color illustrations, and everyone involved with the publication
has earned our thanks and congratulations. This book will be immensely useful for both the makers and users of stained glass, paving the way for a smoother, more enriching process and for better art. However, not every prospective stained glass client stands to benefit from this book. For those who bring the values of fast food to culture, ordering art by the square foot and looking for bulk discounts, Hall is wasting her words. But if you (and your clients) are among those who dare to imagine that the commissioning of stained glass could be an exciting personal journey - not just for the artist, but for the client, the client's community and the community's descendants - then this is the book you've been waiting for.
