Bonita Bounty -
For all its crystalline, brittle beauty, glass is
a fluid substance. Solidly built as a blacksmith, glass artist Rich Fizer also moves and talks with fluid grace in the
sweltering heat of his small glass blowing studio in North Fort Myers.
"I'm an impatient person, and glass gives me the instant
gratification," he says, tucking one of his trademark painterly, amorphous bowles under his arm so that his hands are free
to move as he speaks. "It's an intensely physical process - continuous motion of the artist and the molten glass, and
there's no time to stand back and think. I can complete three pieces per day - on a good day. Of course, things
sometimes don't turn out the way i think they will. Things break. You must have to go with the flow and explore
the possibilities."
Fizer's glass is all about exploring the possibilities
of heat, color and geometry. Fizer is inspired by the rich color and impossible angles of objects in Cezanne paintings,
and drawn to the unconventional structures of Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudi. Fizer's Work undulates the twirls,
tilts and swirls as if in the perpetual fluid motion of a splash of water.
"It's light that I'm always trying to capture," says
Fizer, twirling the bowl back into his hands and holding it for a moment against the setting sun. For a moment, the
light shines through the rpism of glass and sparkles, brilliant and hard as a jewel against the glittering concrete.
March 2003 "Naples Illustrated"
by: Sarah FK Coble
