A Glass Act

Seats are already filled for the art class "Glass Blowing" which makes its debut next spring in the Conley Art Building

By Adrian Rodriguez

The things people do in the name of Art. In the Conley Art building, the house of art students and the canvas for an ever-changing mural on its south side, a new set of ovens and furnaces burn at thousands of degrees for students and instructors to mold sculptures.

On the east side, Ed Gillum and other instructors torched silica casts in a five-foot oven to melt the wax inside them. The emptied casts were then filled with bronze, which cools and forms the end-result—a student’s semester-long art project.

On the south side of the building, Chris VanGoethem, a junior at Fresno State, gets a rare first crack at new glass blowing equipment.

VanGoethem, who has blown glass for three years starting in Bakersfield, said he’s been interested in the craft forever.

“ It resembles nature,” he said. “It’s a real beautiful form of art.”

A lot of students agree. There are so many students requesting a spot in the glass blowing class that there is a lottery set up for those who will actually get a chance to wobble glass at the end of a rod.

— Adrian Rodriguez