Art Shattered: Glass Art by Cindy Manly
The Beach, glass coat gallery-wrapped canvas
Cindy Manly describes her artwork as “Art Shattered,” a phrase that describes the artist’s practice as continually branching out, packed with experimentation with different styles and media. It also seems to reflect the nature of Cindy’s most recent works that frequently utilize glass both stained and shattered.
Whale, crushed glass coat on gallery-wrapped canvas
I enjoy the tension between stylistic similarity and wild difference that is present throughout Cindy’s portfolio. The artist depicts a wide variety of subjects through her work, with floral forms, seascapes, figures and more specific imagery all well represented. I love the look of Cindy’s shattered glass works, particularly those that use plain clear crushed glass, formed into silhouetted shapes on a canvas. The overlap of many different glass shards creates a beautiful, pale blue color.
Cindy also creates works on canvas that she then glass coats. The resulting works are brilliantly glossy, and elevate simple, gestural paintings into more intricate and lasting works. Cindy tends to layer her glass work over canvas in general, making her works an interesting blend of two very different processes.
