Terri Hamilton-Gahart
Glass
Artist’s Statement
I am a self taught glass artist. I have been working with glass since the early 2000’s after attending an introductory glass fusing class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. From a workbook, I taught myself the kiln firing schedules.
My collaboration with glass is fascinating. Sometimes, it has a mind of its own. I open the kiln and get a pleasant surprise while other times heartbreak because I melted a piece. Also, the colors interact and change often producing unexpected results and inspiration for new experiments. Assembling the patterns, shapes and colors of the glass is a consuming passion, literally the fire of my heart. Combinations are inspired by the elements, nature and my dreams.
In addition to fusing layers of glass, I cast glass into molds and pull strands from a vitrigraph kiln. The paperweights and offering bowls are created by layering glass powder and frit (varying coarseness like sugar) in molds. The first layer on the bottom of the mold becomes the surface of the piece. For the glass strands, handmade sheets of nontoxic, lead-free glass are broken and put into a clay crucible which is place in a vitrigraph kiln (6 feet above the ground). When the glass reaches 1700 Fahrenheit, strands of glass are pulled by hand (wearing protective gloves!) from the bottom opening of the kiln. The strands are layered on the shelf of a glass fusing kiln. After being fused, they slumped or sagged over a mold. A piece can require two to nine firings.
My kilns and tools use renewable energy supplied by our home solar system. I am pleased glass can be reused in new pieces.
Like the Phoenix, a lifelong totem, my business has risen from the ashes. I lost my home, studio and inventory during the 2017 wildfires. Themes of transformation and resilience emerged in my work after this experience. Phoenix inspires the ability within each of us to survive the fire of life, emerge through the darkness of ashes and return renewed into the Light of Hope.
The Interview:
Terri Hamilton-Gahart, May 2026
Interview conducted and edited by Nancy Martin
NJM: What brought you to Sonoma?
THG: I'm a second generation native of California, born in Napa. I grew up in a family of creators. As a little kid I loved to draw, write and make things. As an adolescent I was obsessed with embroidery. Later, as an adult I chose to attend Dominican College in San Rafael to study special education, majoring in psychology, and also took art history classes. Then I went to grad school at California School of Professional Psychology in Berkeley. While studying to become a psychologist I had the good fortune to take a creative writing class and an Art and Psychology class. I continued to take art history classes which became a theme throughout my life. My dissertation, "Five Adult Artists' Animate and Inanimate Object Relations, studied the artist's involvement with their works of art and how this attachment affected their relationship with people. Art has been a theme throughout my life.
I worked in my private psychology practice from 1991 to 2022. In the early 2000s, I also started my own jewelry business making and selling jewelry, naming my business Heartfire. We moved up to Bennet Ridge where we built a beautiful studio. In the mid-2000s. I took an introductory class in glass fusing at Santa Rosa JC, then began selling glass. Also living on the Ridge were a collection of artists. Together we hosted friends during the annual "Art on the Ridge" open studios. In 2017, we lost our home and all my work in the fire and moved to Sonoma.
Creating art helped to keep me more balanced as a psychologist. I retired from my private psychology practice in 2022. I found it challenging keeping my psychology business and my art businesses separate and private.
NJM: Can you describe what inspires your art and creativity?
THG: I am fascinated working in the medium of glass which is a tricky collaborator, loving how everything changes in the glass or the Vitrigraph kiln, when surprising shapes and colors emerge. I love to play with colors and shapes and find that I'm inspired by nature, the elements and my dreams.
NJM: What would you hope that people will carry with them after seeing your art?
THG: A carry-over from my 2017 fire experience is the hope that people take away ideas of resilience and transformation in the re-creation of something beautiful from broken pieces. The fire opened up a new path for me, realizing that things do not have to be so precious. I found my voice in glasswork. After the fire and building a new studio, my first pieces were a series of glass nests which I called the Phoenix series. Phoenix inspires the ability within each of us to survive the fire of life, emerge through the darkness of ashes and return renewed into the Light of Hope. The pieces were nests which represented this journey- fire, ash and Golden Light. Doing this transformed me in ways I never expected and now really appreciate. Sometimes when I take a piece out of the kiln, the beauty of it will bring me to tears.
NJM: Which artists have most inspired you?
THG: I have two favorite artists. The first would be Freida Kahlo. Her life was suffering and her art turned pain into beauty! Plus, I've always loved Mexican symbolism.
Mark Rothko's work has also made a big impact on me. I've experienced walking into a building where his work was showing and prior to viewing it, I can "feel" his work in the museum. I can physically feel the energy coming off of his paintings.
http://nancyjmartinauthor.com/
You can find Terri’s art on her website,
Instagram and Facebook