New Directions...
Thoughts on our history
As the founder of Crystal Lotus Studios I have spent most of the days since its conception in the arena of education. I have found a need to educate the public in the region I live and beyond simply in order to sell my work. The result has been good for interest in my work from a commissioning sense, but not for my own growth as an artist.
Courses
The courses I have taught, on the other hand, have been very rewarding to me as an individual due to the nature of sharing with eager recipients the knowledge I have, but more so in the way that knowledge has been taken and applied by my students. This has strenghtened me in my interest in teaching, but was always hampered by the lack of student uptake and the dire need to pay bills while maintaining a studio.
Back to the beginning of glass for the founder
I came to glass as a sculptor. I saw glass as a fantastic medium for expression through my favoured form of expression, sculpture. But in moving to ireland i found it hard to find venues for exhibiting and thus set out to make quick money to establish my studio. The cost was great for my expressive side. I have spent most of the past seven years in business more caught up in technical feats than in expressing my path and ideals, as well as noting my journey along the way.
Vacant rooms in the chamber of my heart
For several years I have considered the idea of completing a graduate degree I started in 1993. I left due to difficulties in the program, which in turn brought me to Ireland and my spiritual path with the Hare Krishna way of life. Nows that I had filled that huge gap in my heart I began to notice a part of me that had been neglected. This was a part of me which had once sought to secure a completed education in an MFA, Masters in Fine Art degree, and then to continue on in education in the university world, all the while developing as an artist in my own right.
Opportunities
In the past several years I have discussed with my wife, Sukhada, the possibility to complete my MFA. She encouraged me and this year i applied to several Universities in the USA. I was accepted by two programs and decided to accept one at Johnson State College in Vermont, in the North East of the USA.
Away on our path
So, my wife, my son, and I are moving to the USA in August for nine months of each year for at least three years. We will be renting out our home and have scaled down business to a large degree. I look forward to entering into this time with refreshed energy and new opportunities on our horizon. But Crystal Lotus Studios will be on hold for now.
Crystal Lotus Studios
Should someone wish for me to do anything for them in the realm of my work as known through Crystal Lotus Studios I will be available to work in the summer months. It is also possible that work can be done from the US and shipped here. That is up to the customer. I do hope to run courses, particularly the studio construction course, in the summer months over the next few years. We will see how this all develops, though, and go from there.
If you are someone who has taken the time to read all of this, thank you very much for your interest in what I have acheived here and please feel free to contact me at any time with any question regarding glass or otherwise. I will attempt to aid you in any way I can.
Sincerely,
Randolph Kent Repass Jr.