Mason Hartley - Museum

     The piece of art that I found was a glass ball with an air bubble inside.  With the top being cut and smoothed so you can see in it, you can see an air bubble in the middle as well has purple, abstract designs.  As my first sentence states, I do think this is art.  It is hard to tell what art is as everyone has different definitions.  I think art is anything someone creates, expressing their creativity.  I also think that good art takes time.  For example, if you splatter paint on a canvas, I wouldn’t call it art as there was no creativity, purpose, or time put into it.  There was so much work and time that went into this piece however.  The outer shape with the inner colors is beautiful enough, but to put an extra air bubble in the center makes it even better.  I believe the purpose of the air bubble is to exaggerate the abstract design on the inside because it refracts the light and bends the image behind it.  The angles that were cut on the top of the glass sphere help to refract the light even more so you see more than one bubble inside.  These two refractions plus the fact that the outer sphere itself is refracting light as well messes with your mind to create a beautiful abstract piece of glass art.  I was particularly interested in this one piece because of the attention to detail.  The card beneath it described what went into just making the outer glass shell itself.  These steps included cutting, polishing, sandblasting, and painting.  I don’t even know how they got the air bubble in the middle or the design on the back side of the glass.  David Schwarz, the creator, knew that beauty took time and should not be rushed.  He calls his masterpiece, “Study of a Bubble in Red”.  I don’t know why he calls it that because it’s purple.  But I guess artists can do whatever they want and it doesn’t have to make sense.  The piece is located on the second floor of the museum with all of the other glass sculptures showcased on the wall.  It is placed on a shelf behind a glass wall.  I think anything enclosed in glass has a reputation of being valuable.  To be put on display like this, I think, increases the significance of it.