womeninarts Glass artist balances passion and practicality


Lisa Mote featured at Alpharetta Arts StreetFest


By KATIE VANBRACKLE katie@northsidewoman.com


Lisa Mote is an award-winning glass fusion artist whose bold, three-dimensional glass creations hang in banks, hospitals, corporate boardrooms and private living rooms all over the country. Mote is one of nearly 100 artists who will display


their talents at the Alpharetta Arts StreetFest, to be held April 14-15 in downtown Alpharetta. For Mote, creating art has been a lifelong passion. Majoring in painting and commercial design in college, she worked as a gymnastics coach before making art a full-time career. “I began with paintings, but soon realized they


were entirely too personal,” said Mote. “I painted what I felt, but quite frankly, they weren’t selling. “I’ve had this ongoing debate in my mind for


years over which direction to pursue as an artist,” she said. “My right brain tells me to be wildly creative, non-functional and larger than life. My left brain is a little more concerned with practical matters like paying the bills, even if it means staying in a rut artistically. Finally, I realized the solution is to find the right balance between the two.” Mote began making stained glass pieces as a hobby and quickly became obsessed with the medium. Then she discovered glass fusion, which allows even more creativity. “Stained glass works with cold glass, but in


glass fusion, the sheets of glass are cut, stacked, layered and heated until they melt together,” she explained. “You can control the color, shape and texture of the piece by the amount of heat you apply.”


Mote took a welding class to learn how to use plasma cutters and bending tools. Adding metal supports to the glass pieces allowed her to create larger, more dramatic glass art. While exploring the world of glass fusion, Mote was also raising a family including five children. “From the time they were babies, my kids were


Lisa Mote is an award-winning glass fusion artist. Right: “Spring Garden” by Lisa Mote. Below: “Spring Garden” bowl by Lisa Mote.


dragged all over the Southeast


to craft shows. I’d just set up the playpens and strollers right next to my booth,” she said. Mote’s family lived in metro Atlanta for years


but moved to Newborn, about an hour east of Atlanta, six years ago. “We are in the country now with plenty of elbow room, which has freed me up in many ways,” she said. “Now, I have the space to think larger and bigger about my art.”


Mote’s husband Rusty designed a new solar glass studio for her large kilns and work areas. Photovoltaic panels connect to the local power grid, allowing Mote to sell power back to Georgia Power, reducing her electricity bills to less than $50 per month.


Rusty also designed a big trailer customized with padded slots for transporting Lisa’s fragile art pieces to craft shows.


Diane Adams, an art consultant, discovered


Mote’s work at a craft show and now a large part of Mote’s business is from private art


collectors and corporate including Coca-Cola. “Coca-Cola just shipped a crate of


glass Coke bottles to me today,” said Mote. “I’m going to break them into pieces and fuse them back together in a metal frame, rippling and suspending them with coiled wire.” For Mote, inspiration for her art rarely arrives on command.


“Inspiration comes in waves. Waves that keep me up all night and then suddenly I’ll have the clarity that pulls together all my fragmented ideas. And a new body of work will follow,” she said. Just as Mote fuses together bright pieces of glass, she works continually to blend together her roles as artist, wife, friend and mother. Her youngest two children are now in high school and she’s already looking ahead to what new directions she might take artistically with the freedom of an empty nest.


“Being successful in the art admitted Mote. world takes


years of paying your dues and a lot of stubborn determination,”


“I feel very


fortunate to have found a way to do what I love while still being flexible with my time and completely available to my kids.” View Lisa Mote’s work online at http://lisasglassstudio.com. Read a step-by-step illustrated guide to making one of Lisa Mote’s unique suspended glass panels at:


www.hgtv.com/ crafting/suspended- glass-panel/ pictures/index. html.


clients


14 | northsidewoman.com | april2012


“Fireworks” by Lisa Mote.


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