Aperio & Li Series

“It was the completing, not the completion which was really vital. Man came thus at once face to face with nature.”
Okakura – “The Book Of Tea”

This body of work began with a research grant for using x-ray machinery in hospitals to examine the internal structure of shells. As the work developed, I realized that the shell forms I found the most intriguing (the ones I kept going back to) were broken or eroded by the action of the sea.

Reading about Taoism and researching the Japanese tea ceremony encouraged me to try to express the beauty of broken-ness and decay. Previously perfect glass shell forms were carefully broken in an effort to reveal their inner qualities. Surfaces I had in the past kept pristine were covered with metals and aged with patina. Interiors were revealed.

My love of rivers further informed the work. As I worked through glass, this dialogue with nature continued; aged driftwood, some found in the White River, was incorporated into the pieces and I started using gold leaf as a metaphor for the spiritual.
– Arlon Bayliss

Work from this series has been exhibited in several galleries and museums, including The Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Harrison Museum of Art in Logan, Utah and The Art Museum of Ota City, Japan.