DEBORA MOORE May 20 - June 20, 2006
Debora Moore, Tree Series III-Blue Lady Slipper, 2006, hand-blown glass, 27 x 14 x 4 inches	Debora Moore, Tree Series II-Purple Epidendrum, 2006, hand-blown glass, 38 x 20 x 4 inches
Debora Moore, Tree Series I-Blue Lady Slipper, 2006, hand-blown glass, 38 x 20 x 4 inches	Debora Moore, Orchid Tree Installation, 2006 Tacoma Museum
Debora Moore has worked in glass for over fifteen years. Her glass orchids are hand-blown, unique pieces. Moore grinds glass to create surface texture and carefully selects her pigments before she begins to blow her sculptures, composing a rich and subtle palette inspired by nature and extending beyond its bounds. Always intrigued by nature, the artist found her voice in glass by creating graceful sculptures of flowers. She now concentrates her energy exclusively on orchids. Her earlier works are free standing plants.	Her newer pieces are wall sculptures of orchid leaves from which she suspends branches filled with gossamer glass orchids; orchid trees which stretch to eight feet in height, with many branches and myriad orchids in greens, grays and lavenders; and a bamboo grove of "brut" pieces of "bamboo," cascading down a wall with brilliant blue orchids. Moore creates a watercolor for each piece and works out the palette for her orchid flowers on paper first. She then blows the flowers and leaves, taking her cue from nature, heightening the color with artistic license. While capturing the fragility of the flower in glass, Moore's blooms are a powerful homage to nature's infinite possibilities.
Debora Moore, Kikko Bamboo Grove, 2006, hand-blown glass, 154 x 76 x 20 inches	Debora Moore, Kikko Bamboo Grove, 2006, hand-blown glass, 154 x 76 x 20 inches
Moore says: "The delicacy and inherent properties of glass have helped me cultivate my interpretation of three-dimensional botanical sculpture. The material's ability to transmit and reflect light, as well as all the variations of transparency and opacity, lends itself perfectly to the execution of my work."
Debora Moore, close-up detail of Kikko Bamboo Grove Orchids	Debora Moore, close-up detail of Kikko Bamboo Grove Orchids
In a recent article on the artist, Judy Wagonfeld writes: "[Moore's} regal botanical specimens, though based in reality, spill from imagination; composite imagery garnered from hiking orchid-lush forests in Thailand, Japan, South America and rain forests of the Pacific Northwest. Her art celebrates their essence, beauty, peace, fragility and strength of nature. Acid-etched glass and sprinkled glass dust from surface 'skins' suggestive of nature's velvety, mossy and rugged textures, ingenious, but tricky, repeating rotations of semi-molten bubbles stretch powdery lines into thready radiating veins that nourish leaves. Moore cuts her bamboo and faux wood trunks in foot-long lengths, the broken sections a metaphor for our fragmented lives, saying we are part of a whole and not alone. They also represent the reductive focus used when sketching in forests.	"In today's conceptual art world, Moore's abstracted style relates more to past artists who sank their aesthetic teeth into flowers. Photographer Harold Feinstein viewed flora as a spiritual messenger. Man Ray's calla lily, Robert Mapplethorpe's tulips and Salvador Dali's "Meditative Rose" inspire contemplation. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe's close-up views released the sensuality of organic life."
Debora Moore, Cascading Leaves, 2006, hand-blown glass, 98 x 18 x 18 inches	Debora Moore, Cascading Leaves (detail), 2006, hand-blown glass, 98 x 18 x 18 inches
Debora Moore,Host, 2006, hand-blown glass, 20 x 6 inches
Debora Moore was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1960 and was educated at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle and Pilchuk Glass School, Stanwood, Washington. She was Visiting Artist in Residence, at the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington and Artist in Residence, Murano, Venice, Italy. She was three times Scholarship awardee at Pilchuck Glass School. She is a Member of African American Design Archive, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, NewYork	Her work has been shown at the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, Washington; the Northwest International Women’s Conference, Seattle; and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Debora Moore, Orchid Tree, 2004, hand-blown glass, 96 x 48 x 48 inches	Debora Moore, Purple Epidendrum Plant Series, 2006, hand-blown glass, 43 x 19 x 6 inches
Debora Moore, Branch-Golden Lady Slipper Tree Series, 2006, hand-blown glass, 40 x 33 x 6 inches	Debora Moore, Brassia Spider Orchid Plant, 2006, hand-blown glass, 38 x 11 x 7 inches
Debora Moore, Green Spider Orchid Leaf, 2006, hand-blown glass, 5 x 34 x 10 inches	Debora Moore, Phragmipedium Pedium Plant, 2006, hand-blown glass, 21 x 16 x 12 inches
Debora Moore, Blue Paphiopedium-Plant Series, 2006, hand blown glass, 37 x 19 x 10 inches	Debora Moore, Yellow Paphiopedium-Plant Series, 2006, hand-blown glass, 37 x 19 x 10 inches Debora Moore, Vanilla Bean, 2006, hand-blown glass, 25 x 8 x 4 inches