Christina Bothwell's guest appearances

Christina Bothwell

Your Creative Push

Talking Out Your Glass podcast

Gettin' To Know The 570

John Wentz

Shane Fero

Ben Belgrad

Tim Tate

Miriam Di Fiore

Mary Clerkin Higgins

Sarah Williams

Elizabeth Sutton

Martin Wittfooth

Brian Williams

Dan Thompson

Jennie Nash

Tom Ross

Amy Dresner

Cory Huff

OwlTail

Art is open to interpretation. It’s that feeling you get the first time you see a painting or a sculpture. Your experience can differ drastically from the experience of someone else. That’s what we learn in today’s episode with husband and wife artists, Robert Bender and Christina Bothwell. As students of all disciplines of art, listen in as we talk about what it is that drew them to their current medium of truly one-of-a-kind glass pieces. We’ll also find out about what propelled them from their upbringing near Philadelphia to the “Big Apple”, and how it came to be that they settled in the small rural town of Stillwater, PA. This was a most interesting episode, so, to hear the rest of Robert and Christina’s amazing story, you’ll just have to listen!If you or someone you know wants to be featured in our next podcast, message us on Facebook! Until next time, keep Eatin', Drinkin', and Shoppin' Local.To learn more, check out Christina's Instagram and Robert's Instagram. 

Art is open to interpretation. It’s that feeling you get the first time you see a painting or a sculpture. Your experience can differ drastically from the experience of someone else. That’s what we learn in today’s episode with husband and wife artists, Robert Bender and Christina Bothwell. As students of all disciplines of art, listen in as we talk about what it is that drew them to their current medium of truly one-of-a-kind glass pieces. We’ll also find out about what propelled them from their upbringing near Philadelphia to the “Big Apple”, and how it came to be that they settled in the small rural town of Stillwater, PA. This was a most interesting episode, so, to hear the rest of Robert and Christina’s amazing story, you’ll just have to listen! If you or someone you know wants to be featured in our next podcast, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GettinToKnow570" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">message us on Facebook</a>! Until next time, keep Eatin', Drinkin', and Shoppin' Local. To learn more, check out Christina's <a href="https://www.instagram.com/christina.bothwell/?fbclid=IwAR0BS3Hra8ahDG2yByBWzSXgCe0yn3fWcnBoeh01IVj5gtrSgAK0bXV4j3k" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and Robert's <a href="https://www.instagram.com/robert.d.bender/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>.

Gettin' to Know Christina Bothwell and Robert Bender 

Christina Bothwell: Transforming Symbols into Spirits of Creation Exploring themes of birth, death, animal-human relationships and parallel worlds suggests that Christina Bothwell is a magical realist. Her work conjures scenes from fables or children’s stories in which something impossible is happening quite naturally and spontaneously.  Bothwell says: “Since I was very young, I have been fascinated with the concept of the Soul… the idea that the physical body represents only a small part of our beingness. I am always interested in trying to express that we are more than just our bodies, and my ongoing spiritual interests and pursuits have run parallel to the narrative in my pieces.” Bothwell studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before teaching herself how to work with ceramics and cast glass. The artist lived and worked in Manhattan until 1994 when she and husband, artist Robert Bender, relocated to rural Pennsylvania – along with their three young children, eight pets, plus a snake named Lucy. Nature, the main source of inspiration for her work, helps Bothwell maintain an awareness of the interconnectedness that exists among all of life. By the late 1990s, Bothwell was having some success making doll-like figures out of clay, found objects and cloth. But a perceived “disturbing quality” sometimes made the work a tough sell. A 1999 glassmaking workshop at the Corning Museum of Glass provided the breakthrough she needed. Realizing glass could do all the same things as clay but with an added element of delicacy and lightness, Bothwell has been combining the two materials ever since – a pairing that has become her aesthetic signature. Since those early days, Bothwell has won numerous scholarships and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation award for excellence in sculpture. Additional awards and honors include the 2018 Artist of the Future Award for Most Compassionate Artist, Imagine Museum, Saint Petersburg, FL; The Haven Foundation grant, Brewer, ME; and the Craft Emergency Relief Foundation grant, Montpelier, VT, to offset damages and loss of artwork caused by a devastating studio fire Bothwell and Bender suffered in August 2018. Bothwell’s work is held in permanent public collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Shanghai Museum of Glass Art, Shanghai, China; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Palm Springs Museum, Palm Springs, CA and the Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung foundation, Munich, Germany. She is represented by Heller Gallery, NY; Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI; and Austin Art Projects, Palm Desert, CA. With an exhibition at Heller Gallery scheduled in February 2021, Bothwell contemplates new work. “My subject matter includes babies, animals, and children as they embody the essence of vulnerability that is the underlying theme in my work. Currently I am exploring metamorphosis as a topic, and have been incorporating figures within figures in my pieces. Within each glass figure there is a smaller figure seen through the surface of the glass. I think of these pieces as souls, each being pregnant with their own potential, giving birth to new, improved versions of themselves.” In this special AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode of Talking Out Your Glass podcast, patron and co-producer Anthony Cowan participates in interviewing one of his favorite glass artists, Bothwell, as a reward for his support of the podcast via Patreon. If you’re interested in supporting the continued documentation of glass and glass artists while earning extra episodes and other rewards, visit  www.patreon.com/TalkingOutYourGlass

Christina Bothwell: Transforming Symbols into Spirits of Creation Exploring themes of birth, death, animal-human relationships and parallel worlds suggests that Christina Bothwell is a magical realist. Her work conjures scenes from fables or children’s stories in which something impossible is happening quite naturally and spontaneously.  Bothwell says: “Since I was very young, I have been fascinated with the concept of the Soul… the idea that the physical body represents only a small part of our beingness. I am always interested in trying to express that we are more than just our bodies, and my ongoing spiritual interests and pursuits have run parallel to the narrative in my pieces.” Bothwell studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before teaching herself how to work with ceramics and cast glass. The artist lived and worked in Manhattan until 1994 when she and husband, artist Robert Bender, relocated to rural Pennsylvania – along with their three young children, eight pets, plus a snake named Lucy. Nature, the main source of inspiration for her work, helps Bothwell maintain an awareness of the interconnectedness that exists among all of life. By the late 1990s, Bothwell was having some success making doll-like figures out of clay, found objects and cloth. But a perceived “disturbing quality” sometimes made the work a tough sell. A 1999 glassmaking workshop at the Corning Museum of Glass provided the breakthrough she needed. Realizing glass could do all the same things as clay but with an added element of delicacy and lightness, Bothwell has been combining the two materials ever since – a pairing that has become her aesthetic signature. Since those early days, Bothwell has won numerous scholarships and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a Virginia A. Groot Foundation award for excellence in sculpture. Additional awards and honors include the 2018 Artist of the Future Award for Most Compassionate Artist, Imagine Museum, Saint Petersburg, FL; The Haven Foundation grant, Brewer, ME; and the Craft Emergency Relief Foundation grant, Montpelier, VT, to offset damages and loss of artwork caused by a devastating studio fire Bothwell and Bender suffered in August 2018. Bothwell’s work is held in permanent public collections such as the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Shanghai Museum of Glass Art, Shanghai, China; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Palm Springs Museum, Palm Springs, CA and the Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung foundation, Munich, Germany. She is represented by Heller Gallery, NY; Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI; and Austin Art Projects, Palm Desert, CA. With an exhibition at Heller Gallery scheduled in February 2021, Bothwell contemplates new work. “My subject matter includes babies, animals, and children as they embody the essence of vulnerability that is the underlying theme in my work. Currently I am exploring metamorphosis as a topic, and have been incorporating figures within figures in my pieces. Within each glass figure there is a smaller figure seen through the surface of the glass. I think of these pieces as souls, each being pregnant with their own potential, giving birth to new, improved versions of themselves.” In this special AMA (Ask Me Anything) episode of Talking Out Your Glass podcast, patron and co-producer Anthony Cowan participates in interviewing one of his favorite glass artists, Bothwell, as a reward for his support of the podcast via Patreon. If you’re interested in supporting the continued documentation of glass and glass artists while earning extra episodes and other rewards, visit  <a href="https://www.patreon.com/TalkingOutYourGlass?fan_landing=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.patreon.com/TalkingOutYourGlass</a>

Christina Bothwell is a sculptor who studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before teaching herself how to work with ceramics, and then cast glass. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of her work since 2006 and her sculptures are in public collections around the country and around the world.  She is drawn to the processes of birth, death, and renewal, and she is fascinated by what lies below the surface as she tries to capture the qualities of the “unseen.” Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/christinabothwell In this episode, Christina discusses: -What the “unseen” is that she tries to capture in her sculptures. -Why she likes to work with glass and how it has an otherworldly quality to it. -The idea of casting figures inside of her figures to suggest the soul and also pregnancy and birth. -How much of what she learned with her glass work was due to trial and error and “being a detective.” -The story of her first creative moments. -How art is supposed to come from a place of joy rather than anything else. -Her advice for getting back to a place where the work is enjoyable and doesn’t feel like drudgery. -Comparing yourself to other people and getting past that. -The simple fact that there is only one you and the more you you put into your work, the better off you will be. -The genius of Louis CK. -Some of her hardest moments along her creative journey. -An incredibly synchronistic story in which she “manifested red dots.” -How you have to treat your artwork like a stage mother treats her child.  You have to support it. -If you are creating something unique, people won’t have anything to compare it to, and therefore might not support it the way that they should. -The creative experience of becoming a mother. Christina's Final Push will inspire you to believe in yourself and just keep doing the work! Quotes: “I just believe that we are much more than our physical bodies.” “It can do all the same things that ceramic can, except it transmits light.” “It has kind of an unsubstantial otherworldly quality to it.” “When you teach yourself, you have to be a kind of private detective.  You have to learn through trial and error.” “There is only one you.  That quality that can make your work special is that quality of you-ness that goes into the work and nobody else has that.” “The more you are true to yourself and express what is unique to you, the more universally appealing your work will be because people will be able to relate to the work more because it will resonate with them.”  “If you are consumed with wanting something really badly in your life, I think it’s because you’re meant to have it.” “If you have a unique vision, that means that people aren’t going to be able to compare your work.  They’re not going to have a context for it.” “If art is the main thing that brings you joy, I think you have to keep doing it.” “Persistence is more important than talent.” Connect with Christina: Website / Facebook / Instagram

Christina Bothwell is a sculptor who studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania before teaching herself how to work with ceramics, and then cast glass. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of her work since 2006 and her sculptures are in public collections around the country and around the world.  She is drawn to the processes of birth, death, and renewal, and she is fascinated by what lies below the surface as she tries to capture the qualities of the “unseen.” Full shownotes: <a href="http://yourcreativepush.com/christinabothwell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://yourcreativepush.com/christinabothwell</a> In this episode, Christina discusses: -What the “unseen” is that she tries to capture in her sculptures. -Why she likes to work with glass and how it has an otherworldly quality to it. -The idea of casting figures inside of her figures to suggest the soul and also pregnancy and birth. -How much of what she learned with her glass work was due to trial and error and “being a detective.” -The story of her first creative moments. -How art is supposed to come from a place of joy rather than anything else. -Her advice for getting back to a place where the work is enjoyable and doesn’t feel like drudgery. -Comparing yourself to other people and getting past that. -The simple fact that there is only one you and the more you you put into your work, the better off you will be. -The genius of Louis CK. -Some of her hardest moments along her creative journey. -An incredibly synchronistic story in which she “manifested red dots.” -How you have to treat your artwork like a stage mother treats her child.  You have to support it. -If you are creating something unique, people won’t have anything to compare it to, and therefore might not support it the way that they should. -The creative experience of becoming a mother. Christina's Final Push will inspire you to believe in yourself and just keep doing the work! Quotes: “I just believe that we are much more than our physical bodies.” “It can do all the same things that ceramic can, except it transmits light.” “It has kind of an unsubstantial otherworldly quality to it.” “When you teach yourself, you have to be a kind of private detective.  You have to learn through trial and error.” “There is only one you.  That quality that can make your work special is that quality of you-ness that goes into the work and nobody else has that.” “The more you are true to yourself and express what is unique to you, the more universally appealing your work will be because people will be able to relate to the work more because it will resonate with them.”  “If you are consumed with wanting something really badly in your life, I think it’s because you’re meant to have it.” “If you have a unique vision, that means that people aren’t going to be able to compare your work.  They’re not going to have a context for it.” “If art is the main thing that brings you joy, I think you have to keep doing it.” “Persistence is more important than talent.” Connect with Christina: <a href="http://christinabothwell.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Website</a> / <a href="https://www.facebook.com/christina.bothwell.1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/christina.bothwell/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>