Visions of Our Galaxy

Visions of Our Galaxy opened at the Sandwich Glass Museum in Sandwich, MA in June 2005.   I was pleased to have my work there; it was one of the first museums that I visited back in 1971 when I was teaching myself how to blow glass. I never imagined that 34 years later my work would be on exhibit there! In 2006 the show traveled to the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and in 2007 the show was at Steninge Castle outside of Stockholm, Sweden.  Visions of Our Galaxy has now been retired and dispatched to the four corners of the globe.
It’s great that Visions of Our Galaxy, with some additional pieces added just for Steninge Castle, made it to Sweden. I felt honored to have an exhibit in a country where glassmaking is such a longstanding and refined art. My entire career in glass might have well been different had I been able to study at the Orrefors Glass School in 1972 - at the time it was impossible because I did not have the $268.00 to afford an airplane ticket to Sweden.  

My work is not meant to represent something specific in nature. I try to evoke an emotion or perhaps tweak one’s imagination.  Much of my work is concerned with exploration (or imagined exploration) of the universe around us. I grew up in the '60s when space exploration was at its zenith and less government money was wasted on war. A sense of wonder of the possibilities in the universe was all around us then. I hope that my glass will give the viewer some of the same sense that many of us had during that time in history.          

Like the artists, poets, scientists and explorers who lived in the centuries before him, Simpson has created a legacy that intrigues and illumines our understanding, and our appreciation for the potential, of what the heavens above may reveal. As a guide he draws attention to the smallest details in order to make known the infinite beyond. Using technologies and techniques that are thousands of years old, creating humble “marbles” and expansive and ambitious planets, Simpson’s work betrays that in truth he has an artist’s vision, a scientist’s knowledge and an explorer’s soul. And all who see his work are invited along on his journey.

Virginia Eichhorn
Curator
Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada