Glass has been a life long exploration. There are so many ways to use glass and so many choices of materials at hand. Every installation is unique, with different orientations of exposure, architectural considerations and objectives to be met for the community of people or individuals who will occupy the space. Deciding what I want to say and then how to say it is part of a meditative process at work before the drawing begins. I prefer to use glass without artificial lighting, to choose glass for a space that will work in reflective and transmitted light in different and interesting ways.

Fusing glass is also important to me as it is a reversal of scale and much more of an instant gratification or disappointment depending on what I find when the kiln opens. It plays a large part in my work with lenticular imagery.

While I enjoy painting windows on an intimate scale, it is the combination of glass and lead, color and form, opaqueness, transparency and translucency along with all the challenges of an installation that thrill me and keep things fresh after all this time. Most of the time the glass doesn't need my help.

My friend Bill Roemer, a master glass selector said to me before he died that “after it was all said and done, I realized some of the happiest moments of my life were spent at the selecting table.” I think I know what he means.

Concerning lenticular imagery

In each of the art works, my goal is to capture through the use of glass and photography, disparate images, often opposites, which are read by moving from side to side before them. The viewer may have a sense of freedom from habitual ways of thinking, and that is one of my objectives. It has been said of my work that it is challenging. I hope to challenge the viewer to stay with the images long enough to quiet down and pause in the present, as a child does, lying in the grass looking up at the ever changing cloud formations, with interest and delight.

Working solely with glass for so many years, then making graphics and prints with my glass through the technology of the computer has now evolved in to working with lenticular imagery. This allows me to investigate the multifarious nature of the moment. The technique also alludes to the subjective nature of the moment, as 2 people standing before the work together will see two different images. The magic of a medium usually reserved for commercial applications has taken on new dimensions. As we are bombarded with imagery and sound/sight bites through mass media the work allows one the ability, if they choose to do so, to pause and reflect.

- Ellen Miret