About Miriam
Welcome to my my website,
I’m Miriam Silburt, a glass artist based in Ottawa, Canada. I specialize in landscapes, functional objects, and sculptural pieces.
Artist Statement
Capturing the beauty I see in the natural world infuses all of the work that I do – both abstract and representative. Whether it’s a forest interior or a microscopic image of cellular life, I find endless inspiration in the colour and shapes that I see and wish to bring to life through glass – the medium that I love. Luminescence, colour, texture and flow. I’m fascinated by glass and all its wonderful possibilities. As an artist, I begin with the convergence of a glass fabrication technique that I am immersed in, and an idea that an experience in nature nurtured in me. I feel a joy in imagining the piece I’m going to create. Then the medium plays its own part in the outcome of my work. We interact. I pursue and the glass responds. The limitations of kiln and cutter, blade and blaster, frit and fragment, all conspire to an end point that maybe neither of us quite imagined. My art is the art of conjoining with my medium, conspiring and cajoling it, and at times consenting to its mastery to discover, in the end, a thing of beauty.
I like to work in series’. An idea will take on several embodiments. Some are serious. Some are whimsical. Some are nostalgic. All of them reflect some part of me along with my ongoing discovery of glass and its many mysteries.
Recent Series
Illuminated Landscapes: These are a series of light boxes created from multiple fused glass panels using frit and vitrograph elements
Out to Dry: A series of nostalgic images of hanging laundry mounted on antique washboards.
Stepping Out: A series of sculptural wall art with a dancing heart
Dripping Wet: An exploration of the possibilities of suspended animation of flowing glass
Professional Development
I have developed my techniques by working hands on beside some of the best glass artists in the world:
Patty Gray Miriam di Fiore
Amanda Taylor Robert Leatherbarrow
Tanya Viet Joanne Teasdale
Michael Dupille Karl Heron
Experience
I began working in stained glass in 1995, creating mainly decorative and architectural pieces, under the guidance of Donna Edmonson. In 2007 I became fascinated with the new possibilities that fused glass offered and before long I was hooked. Today I have a large studio with five kilns that have made their mark on the Ontario Hydro power grid. They have my number …
I started with smaller pieces such as jewelry, which I still love to make. My work grew with my kiln capacity and I began incorporating new techniques such as combing, vitrograph and powder painting into large bowls, platters, sculptural objects and wall art.
Recent Exhibitions
2017 – June 4 – 18, Art Square Gallery, 334 Dundas St W, Toronto, Ontario
2016 – November 18 – 20, Platform Gallery, 51a Young Street, Ottawa, Ontario
2016 – October 21-23 Dimensions 2016 – National Capital Network of Sculptors, Landsdowne Park Horticultural Building, Ottawa
2016 – September, Galerie Cote Creations, 98 Richmond Road, Ottawa, Ontario
2016 – September, West End Studio Tour – Ottawa
2016 – Shenkman Arts Centre – with the National Capital Network of Sculptors
2015 – Canadian Cancer Society Mother’s Day Show (Ottawa)
2015 – National Capital Network of Sculptors Dimensions 2015
2014 – National Capital Network of Sculptors Dimensions 2014
2014 – Back Roads Studio Tour (Frontenac County)
