Elodie Holmes' Biography

Originally recognized for combining flame worked dancing figures in her off-hand blown work, Elodie Holmes currently creates Aurora Sculptures, blown glass sculptural forms held by forged steel stands. The special heat-sensitive Calcedonia glass color that she formulates, as well as the movement of hot glass on a blowpipe inspires her series of Aurora Sculptures. The colors are multi-layered with a veiling effect. On the pipe, the glass takes on an organic feel- often times reminiscent of a naturally occurring form, like something from the sea. When the glass is spun off-center on the pipe, it creates an optical illusion of sorts, where the glass looks in the round, but is really flattened, but still hollow and stretched-out. Depending on the outcome of the glass form, the steel is made to simply suspend the glass, or it can become a sculptural part of the glass, and some can stand up to five feet tall.

Elodie Holmes was born in Washington, D.C. in 1959 and comes from a family of artists, starting with her Great-Grandfather, Frank Graham Holmes, former Chief Designer of Lennox China. In 1977 Elodie studied Ceramics at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. In 1979, Elodie attended California College of the Arts in Oakland majoring in glass and ceramics. It was there she met her teacher, Marvin Lipovsky and eventually worked for him in his polishing shop. In 1981, Elodie relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico to help run a glass shop on Canyon Road- the art center of Santa Fe. It was there that her initial passion for ceramics gave way to hot glass. In 1984, Elodie went to Pilchuck School in Seattle as a teaching assistant to Marvin Lipovsky and Fritz Dreisbach. The following year, on her way back to Pilchuck on a scholarship, she was in a near fatal car accident and Elodie did not know if she would ever be able to blow glass again. Inspired by the suggestion from a glass blowing friend, she took up flame-worked glass, which inevitably helped to rehabilitate her severely broken limbs. After 9 years of flame-working, she started blowing glass at Glory Hole Glass, where Peter VanderLaan introduced Elodie to making glass colors. In 1997, Elodie was one of several artists to create a unique Christmas tree ornament for the Clinton White House, now part of their permanent collection. That same year, she also was part of an exhibit, 'A Continuing Tradition', at the Trenton City Museum in New Jersey, featuring the family's art of Graham Holmes, Elodie Holmes and Stephen Holmes. Elodie finally was able to build her own glass studio in the fall of 2000. 2002 brought her first museum show at the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas. In 2003, Elodie started collaborating with Jannine Cabossel creating large glass art together. Elodie continues to run her studio and gallery, Liquid Light Glass and her solo work is featured in many galleries throughout the U.S. Elodie and Jannine's collaborative work can be seen at the prestigious Jane Sauer Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to making glass art, Elodie is very active teaching private classes, doing public demos, partnering in another glass shop, being an active member of Glass Alliance-New Mexico, and is an influential figure in the Santa Fe artistic community having established Baca Street Studios, one of Santa Fe's hottest areas for artists studio/galleries.

On her work, Elodie states, "The act of discovery is an accident meeting a prepared mind, and an experienced hand and intuition play an important role in creating my art. My work is loosely inspired by classical forms, and forms in nature, but also by the glass itself. The spontaneity and tension created in each piece of art off the end of a blowpipe is highly satisfying. It’s a dance,’’ Holmes says of the physically taxing work, "The fire sets the tempo - and glass is the music."

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