Lynn Richards
Bio for Website: Lynn Richards is a third-generation artist and long-time urbanist and cyclist with degrees in environmental science and public administration. She’s worked for more than 25 years making cities and neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable. As a third-generation artist, she transforms streetscape elements into fused glass sculptures: houses, trees, bikes, flowers, and creatures like dragonflies and butterflies. She’s interested in how light transforms the glass to create a dynamic experience. Her pieces are also used as a way to help people change how they view and experience their neighborhoods. A street is more than a passage for cars: it's a place where people, plants, and animals live and thrive.Recent shows include a two-person exhibition at Dorchester Center for the Arts (Oct, 2022), Longs Park Art Fair (2023 and 2024), Coconut Grove Art Festival (2024 and 2025). Additionally, in 2025, she will be offering introduction to fused glass classes at Northern Cambridge Glass School and the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA.
Materials and Techniques: The glass pieces are kiln fused glass using Bullseye CO90 glass. Each piece is unique and designed in the kiln. Glass is cut into both realistic and abstract shapes to create the streetscape element that is being designed. All pieces integrate cane, which are slices from a pulled and twisted combination of 16 pieces of glass, formed into a block,
fired and placed into a furnace to heat until malleable. To create additional dimensionality, pieces can be fused twice or three additional times to slump into three-dimensional shapes. Slumping glass can create the impression of flowing shapes, especially for her glass trees and jellyfish. After the firing, elements are combined to produce pieces that are either free standing glass and steel sculptures or hanging pieces.
