Mary Shaffer (born 1944) is an American artist who has worked primarily with

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

since the 1970s. She was an early artist in the American Studio Glass Movement. Her works often take slumped (or

molten Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which inc ...

) form, in which found objects are embedded in the glass. She has work in the collections of the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Life

Shaffer was born in 1944 in

Walterboro, South Carolina Walterboro is a city in Colleton County, South Carolina, United States. The city's population was 5,398 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Colleton County. Walterboro is located west of Charleston and is located near the ACE Basin r ...

. She grew up in South America. She studied illustration and painting, earning her B.F.A. in Illustration in 1965 from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

(RISD). Shaffer has taught at RISD, Wellesley College, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

as the Director of the Crafts Program in the 1970s and 1980s. She also managed the Art Center at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

Work

Shaffer's first experiments were with plate glass slumped over metal bars that were originally intended to be a canvas for painting. During her time in Providence, RI, Shaffer experimented further to test glass' reaction under various conditions, and how it could be manipulated and combined with other materials. The early metal forms used were predominantly made using found objects such as discarded nails, spikes, brick, pulleys and wire. Instead of manipulating the glass herself, Shaffer used gravity creating natural shapes made as a result of heat being applied to glass.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaffer, Mary 1947 births Living people American glass artists Women glass artists People from Walterboro, South Carolina Rhode Island School of Design alumni 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American artists 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American artists Rhode Island School of Design faculty Wellesley College faculty New York University faculty University of Maryland, College Park faculty Artists from South Carolina American women academics