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| Artists at The Edge Gallery work on a glass starfish, one of hundreds of custom pieces made for display within the Oregon Coast Aquarium's new 'Oddwater' exhibit. |
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| Edge Gallery owner Ryan Bledsoe applies some yellow color to a starfish. |
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Aquarium glass:
It's not just for tanks anymore
The Edge Gallery blows glass art that shares tanks with Aquarium's new 'Oddwater' creatures
Story by Niki Price - Photos by Emily Leiper
Oregon Coast Today
[Posted May 22, 2008]
Learn more about the Oregon Coast Aquarium
Learn more about The Edge Art Gallery
What kind of art glass would a sting ray like? This question may sound a little surreal, but it was a real problem faced by the glassblowers at The Edge Art Gallery, as they prepared for this Saturday’s opening of the Oddwater exhibit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
For the past year, the artists at The Edge have been creating glass habitats for Oddwater, a collection of strange life forms from oceans around the world. Starting this weekend, the public can see the result: bizarre and beautiful creatures, from the flashlight fish to the chambered nautilus, swimming amidst vivid, fluid glass sculptures. The Edge has created 300 pieces (more than 2.5 tons of art glass) for this installation, which will inhabit the aquarium’s temporary exhibit space through 2009.
Oddwater seeks to demonstrate how extreme environments require specialized adaptations, which sometimes result in strange appearances. Visitors can touch sting rays, crawl under silvery “look down” fish, enjoy murals by artist Michael Cole and see a film in the Bioluminescent Theater.
“Our goal with Oddwater was to create a fresh, illuminative, and somewhat odd look that we haven’t seen before,” said Jim Burke, aquarium director of animal husbandry. “The concept originated well over a year ago from two members of the animal husbandry team, Kevin Clifford and Warren Shead, and has now developed into an extraordinary mixed media exhibit.”
The glassblowing team — The Edge Art Gallery owner Ryan Bledsoe, along with Jeff Hajek, “Illinois Bob” Green, Mike Conrad and Tia Guerrero — created the pieces under the direction of Clifford and Shead.
“They said the crazier and weirder, the better,” said Bledsoe. “So we just did whatever we wanted, from a normal vase with holes blown into the side, to sea grass five feet tall. We made rocks, plates, fish condominiums, bubble coral and anemone tentacles.”
It wasn’t just about aesthetics, however. Each creation had to allow for the tank residents’ particular needs and adaptations. Those oddities, after all, were the reasons these fish were chosen for the exhibit in the first place. The elaborate, frilled lionfish, for example, needed someplace to rest besides the bottom of the tank. The artists at The Edge created a series of 20 crackle-glass plates, attached to a six-inch tube in the center of the tank. It resembles mushrooms growing on a tree trunk.
“Our first and foremost mission was to create a friendly environment for the fish, a functional habitat that was beautiful, too,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges was the sting ray touch tank, an open exhibit featuring rays that have had their dangerous barbs removed. The Edge artists first created a collection of glass clams for the exhibit’s base.
“It looked beautiful in the tank, but one ray swam in and he couldn’t get out. So we redesigned it into plates that they could glide over and above,” Bledsoe said. “In another exhibit, we made rocks that were supposed to sit on the bottom. But because of the way we made them, they floated. We had to fix a lot of little problems like that.”
The relationship between aquarium and studio began last summer, when Clifford and Shead were creating a “teaser tank” for the upcoming Oddwater exhibit. The marine biologists came to The Edge, which is a few blocks from the aquarium in the South Beach neighborhood, looking for broken pieces of glass or unsuccessful cast-offs. When Bledsoe heard what they were up to, he made them a custom piece: a vase made of white glass and uranium, sensitive to black light and colorful underwater. After several tests, the aquarium found the glass was a great addition: easy to clean, non-porous and safe for the animals.
The aquarium and the glass studio eventually came to a cooperative agreement. The Edge is providing all the exhibit pieces at no cost to the aquarium, but each is for sale through the OCA gift shop. Those that are purchased will be removed from their exhibit, and the glass artists will make a replacement. Prices for the larger pieces start at around $200, but Bledsoe’s studio is also working on medallions and other glass pieces at lower price points.
“This really puts us on the map, to work with a giant like the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The draw they have for our county is amazing, more than 500,000 people a year,” Bledsoe said. “We’re hoping that once they’ve been to the aquarium, we’re the next place they come and see.”
The Edge was built on the success of Bledsoe’s Hummingbird Auto Glass company, which has six shops across Oregon. Open since 2005, it offers public blow-your-own float classes and “stuffed” glass floats, which can incorporate small beach treasures or other souvenirs.
“The whole exhibit worked out so perfectly, because we had great communication with the aquarists. You put an artist on a pipe and he creates his vision,” Bledsoe said. “It’s been a highlight of my career as an artist. It’s by far my best stuff. But I think that everybody put his or her absolute best into this project, and it shows.”
Learn more about the Oregon Coast Aquarium
Learn more about The Edge Art Gallery
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Even money says you’ll love ‘Oddwater’
[Posted May 14, 2008]
There are some strange and beautiful new residents at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. They’re part of “Oddwater,” an exhibit dedicated to bizarre marine life, which opens Memorial Day weekend.
Oddwater will present these creatures and show how their unusual adaptations help them survive.
“Our goal with Oddwater was to create a fresh, illuminative, and somewhat odd look that we haven’t seen before,” said Jim Burke, the aquarium’s director of animal husbandry.
“The concept originated well over a year ago from two members of the animal husbandry team, Kevin Clifford and Warren Shead, and has now developed into an extraordinary mixed media exhibit.”
Colorful blown art glass, created by artists at The Edge Art Gallery, has been placed inside the tanks of the displays, complementing the strange creatures of Oddwater. “We have created a stunning and educational fusion of two very different things, art and aquaria,” said Burke. “The glass art was created specifically for each display based on the actual habitat structures and the requirements of the animals.”
Planners hope that Oddwater will offer an experience that will educate, entertain and enlighten visitors about life forms and sub aquatic landscapes most people never see.
The exhibit will demonstrate how extreme environments require specialized adaptations, resulting in strange appearances in some species.
Among the species featured in Oddwater is the chambered nautilus, noticed for its unusual movement using jet propulsion. The lion fish, with its venomous spines, is a fatal beauty to unsuspecting prey. Oddwater will take a look at these and many other ocean life forms.
As visitors enter Oddwater, they will see a giant screen showing video footage of the most peculiar marine life forms of all, which also happen to be the most inaccessible.
Throughout the exhibit will be digital images and colorful murals painted by artist Michael Cole.
Oddwater’s interactive components will include a sting ray touch pool where visitors will be encouraged to touch sting rays, which are harmless when their barbs are trimmed. A crawl-through tank will offer a close look at “lookdowns,” a silvery, round fish with a blunt forehead.
Interactive audio stations throughout the exhibit will allow visitors to hear details about Oddwater species.
The animals for this exhibit were chosen by the staff because of their interesting adaptations, their distinctness or their oddness, according to Burke.
The aquarium gratefully acknowledges the major sponsors and friends of Oddwater. Major sponsors include Fred Meyer, Inc. and Spirit Mountain Community Fund. Friends of the exhibit include Jeanette Betea Hennings Foundation, Henry Hillman, Jr. Foundation, Jackson Foundation, Rose E. Tucker Charitable trust, Trust Management Services and Siletz Tribal Contribution Fund, which provided funds for interactive graphics.
For more information visit www.aquarium.org or contact Cindy Hanson, public relations manager, at 541-541-08673474 ext. 5224, cindy.hanson@aquarium.org.
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