Desert Crossings: Luminous Journey & Wondrous Love Mosaic
Desert Crossings is the name given to the thirty-six clerestory windows that encircle the Joseph C. Lincoln Rehearsal Hall in the Gwen Harris Music Building.
Sarah Hall used plant forms based on a series of sketches drawn from the local desert. The design is a poetic and painterly response to her experience in Arizona. The intensity that is gathered into the “fire flower” over the podium gives a dynamic power to the windows which symbolizes Pentecost. The desert forms move out from the podium through the warm golds, flowing into blue-greens and then dissolving into deep blue: chosen to correspond with the intensity and full spectrum of light present in Lincoln Hall.
The dichroic glass curves represent the movements a conductor’s baton makes while directing. The windows incorporate techniques such as handmade opal glass, air-brushing, fusing, and laminations of glass. These techniques give the windows a light, free, lyrical quality – along with breathtaking color.
Sarah created the windows at Studio Glasmalerei Peters in Paderborn, Germany. For more information please visit: www.SarahHallstudio.com
Wondrous Love
Wondrous Love, the name given to the magnificent glass organ screen, was also designed by Sarah Hall, in collaboration with Casavant Frères Organ Builders and Glasmalerei Peters, the German glass fabrication studio. Each of the more the 80,000 tiles was made, cut, and set by hand.
The name was inspired by the great American spiritual which begins: “What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul?” Wondrous Love echoes the sacred space of the Sanctuary. Variation of glistening colors and the transition in media, texture, relief, and light hint at the wonder of creation.
Whether encountered from afar or close up, Wondrous Love sings of the Abundance and Generosity of the Holy Spirit.
Sarah Hall, RCA, is an internationally recognized glass artist who creates large-scale art glass and solar projects. She began her studies at Sheridan College in Ontario and continued her studies at the Architectural Glass Department of Swansea College of Art in Wales, UK. Her exceptional contribution to architectural environments has garnered numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects and the Allied Arts Award from the Ontario Association of Architects. She was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2002.
Ms. Hall’s works include commissions for embassies, museums, public buildings, sacred spaces, schools, and parks throughout North America. Ms. Hall is well known for her artistic innovations and pioneering new glass techniques.
She resides in Toronto, Canada. As are all of Sarah Hall’s projects, the Desert Crossings clerestory windows and the Wondrous Love mosaic at Saint Barnabas were created at Studio Glasmalrei Peters in Paderborn, Germany.
For more information, visit http://www.sarahhallstudio.com