No More Blues by Robert Dane

Abstract

Robert Dane, born in Marshfield, Massachusetts, in 1953,1About Robert Dane. http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=76454. Accessed February 15, 2013.Google Scholar received his BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1975 and had additional art education at numerous other schools, such as Penland School for Crafts in Penland, North Carolina, in 1982; Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, in the late 1980s and late 1990s; and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, in 2002.2Dane Gallery Artist Bio. http://www.danegallery.com/artists/index.php/artist_bio/82. Accessed February 15, 2013.Google Scholar He currently owns the Dane Gallery in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the Heath Brook Studio in the Birkshires, the location of which gives him much concrete inspiration.3Robert Dane, Heath Brook Studio. http://www.artfulhome.com/artist/Heath-Brook-Studio/736. Accessed February 21, 2013.Google Scholar He shares:“We are often too absorbed by the day to day of our own small existence to visualize and recognize the grand scheme that is transpiring around us. My aim is to celebrate the beauty of the progression of life as it unfolds and reveals itself.”3Robert Dane, Heath Brook Studio. http://www.artfulhome.com/artist/Heath-Brook-Studio/736. Accessed February 21, 2013.Google Scholar I am not sure by the title of this work, No More Blues, if the artist is delivering a command to end the Blues, or making a plea for no more sadness in the world. A proclaimed optimist,2Dane Gallery Artist Bio. http://www.danegallery.com/artists/index.php/artist_bio/82. Accessed February 15, 2013.Google Scholar Dane is more likely calling for the latter premise. No More Blues is clearly one of Dane’s compositions belonging to his horn series and influenced by his love of music and musical instruments. Regarding this series, Dane says: “The horn form is a tribute to the improvisational nature of the music, and its relationship to the dance of glassblowing.”4http://www.robertdane.com/?gallery=sculpture. Accessed February 20, 2013.Google Scholar In No More Blues, both the jointed pieces of a clarinet, oboe, or brassy saxophone can be discerned, as well as perhaps the lithe undulations of a dancer keeping perfect rhythm to a group of lively pipers. It is also apparent that the time Dane spent at the Pilchuck Glass School profoundly inured him to the concept of teamwork in glassblowing. This is one legacy passed on to the field of American glass blowing from its founder, Dale Chihuly.5Dale Chihuly. http://www.chihuly.com/biography.aspx. Accessed February 15, 2013.Google Scholar, 6Glass-blowing Demonstration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxwpLb16hpw. Accessed February 15, 2013.Google Scholar No More Blues, blown glass with painting and etching, is located on the 9th Floor of the Gonda Building in Rochester, Minnesota, and is the gift of Dr and Mrs Frederick Leavitt.