Shreveport’s Julie Glass Explores “Infinite Possibilities” with Her Art
The law, scraps of metal, bits of used lumber, fragments of blown-out truck tires found alongside highways and a free-flowing imagination all in a way describe the life and work of Shreveport artist Julie Glass.
Taking inspiration from her everyday world, Glass’ artwork is not the usual landscapes of the Louisiana countryside but three-dimensional, stream-of-conscious thoughts set to wood, metal and paint. Completing those abstract sculpted pieces are words, fragmented sentences or even song lyrics ranging from Jimmy Buffett to Bob Marley that enter her imagination as she fashions each piece. The results are colorful and whimsical fragmented constructions that draw viewers into each element and each word. Like the visions that gave them form, her work seems suspended in air, defying gravity.
Born in Monroe in 1955 and growing up in Shreveport, Glass came to her art career a little later in life. She attended high school in Shreveport and later LSU, where she studied political science and received her law degree in 1979. She spent the next 37 years as an attorney for the Shreveport City Council. Since her retirement in 2016, Glass has explored a parallel life in art, a life freed from the daily chores of reviewing detailed contracts and other city government business to one of open free-form expression through her metal and wood sculptures.
Glass, who now divides her time between Shreveport and Amite in Tangipahoa Parish with her wife Jeanee, says she has always enjoyed creating things when her children were young. But it wasn’t until about 2008 that she became a bit more serious about making art. A friend who owned a gallery in Shreveport asked Glass to place a few of her art pieces in the gallery. Art now became more than a hobby.
“What I’m doing right now is really fun,” she says. “It’s very intuitive. It’s a little bit planned out in the general direction, but I don’t have a picture in mind of how it’s going to look when it’s finished. I like just putting things together.”
In recent years, Glass has completed several series including one titled “Communication,” based on letters and emails between Glass and her wife. Another she describes as “Parallel Universes” inspired by the ideas of quantum physics “where a particle can be anywhere at any time and anything can happen at any time. There are infinite possibilities.”
Another series titled “Halfway Between Eunice and Mamou” is based on a Google Earth Map of Louisiana. Glass focused in on various geographical spots on the map.
“That series was very Louisiana,” she says. “I was taking two-dimensional images and then imaging them in three dimensional. It’s basically fields with all different patterns somewhere near Eunice and Mamou. The reason I named the series that is because we heard a Cajun band in a bar in New Orleans and they said, ‘We’re from halfway between Eunice and Mamou.’ I just thought that was funny. It also indicates that every little tiny place in Louisiana has something interesting. There’s an oxbow river near Natchitoches that has these extreme curves in it. That was interesting to make. Also, as part of that series I was going to visit all 64 parishes. I got up to 55 and then COVID hit. I still might go back to that one of these days.”
Glass’ process has evolved over the years. In her 2020 “Halfway Between Eunice and Mamou” series, for instance, she welded pieces of metal together and then filled them in with either fabric or resin, which she no longer uses because of the resin’s toxicity. Now, she works primarily with found pieces of wood that she scavenges from construction sites or from trash piles. Found wood, she says, has more character.
“I like to use wood that has history to it,” she says. “I paint it, write on it, carve into it and then I use a jigsaw or a scroll saw and cut it into pieces. That’s what gives me a million options. That all ties back into the multi-universes because there are infinite possibilities. Then I either screw or wire them back together.”
At other times, her work reflects events in her own life. Her 2011 “Pods and Vessels” series is an example. Made from pieces of tire treads she finds alongside highways, they resemble brightly colored plant pods just before they open to release their seeds and, symbolically, hope and new life.
“I love that series,” Glass says. “It was so fun. The pods and vessels were at a time in my life when I felt like I had a lot of potential. A pod is a ball of potential and I think that is what was driving that series.”
Glass’ art continues to bring her recognition. In 2022 her work appeared in shows at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and in the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center. That, she says, was “the highlight of my career.” Her sculpture also has been shown at the New Orleans Jazz Museum in New Orleans, the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, the Alexandria Museum of Art, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum in Baton Rouge and the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport.
Whether working in welded metal, salvaged wood or found truck tire fragments, Glass reflects upon her work: “I’m taking diversity and trying to create cohesiveness. In every step, there’s an opportunity to go in a different direction.”
For additional information, visit julieglassart.com.
Exhibits
Cajun
Rodin: Towards Modernity
Forty sculptures by this French master, Oct. 24 through April 30. Hilliard Art Museum, Lafayette. hilliardmuseum.org
Central
Perspective: The Art of Joe Ray Paintings, sculptures and photographs by this Alexandria-born artist, Nov. 2 through Feb. 15. Alexandria Museum of Art. themuseum.org
Plantation
Pinpointing the Stars
Works featuring the museum’s history and focus on the stars, through Jan. 31. Louisiana Art & Science Museum, Baton Rouge. lasm.org
NOLA
Louisiana Contemporary
Annual juried art show featuring Louisiana artists, through Oct. 13. Ogden Museum of Southern Art. ogdenmuseum.org
North
Julie Crews: I’ll be Right With You
Artist’s pursuit of a meaningful life, through Nov. 2. Masur Museum of Art, Monroe. masurmuseum.org
