"I find it hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t wonder at the beauty of a rainbow in the sky, it’s something universal.... My work is anchored in a belief and a trust of all that is good, seeking to embody wholeness and connection."

Shoreham based artist Louise V Durham has worked with glass for the last 15 years. Her work is influenced and inspired by her love of gardening and the beauty that is found in connection, be that with other humans, plant life or nature in general. Both the materials and the content of the work speak of the light that ignites all living beings, she aims to nudge us to live naturally, remembering kindness to each other and ourselves.


Tell us about yourself and your background.
I was born in Johannesburg but raised here in the UK. I trained as an Occupational Therapist after travelling in my early twenties. I didn’t really want to be a therapist, but I was heart broken from the break up of my first love and kind of stumbled into it knowing only I wanted do something, anything meaningful. I lived on a canal boat in London whilst completing my degree, only to move to another boat community in Shoreham by the sea in the year 2000. These communities have been a great inspiration in my life, I now live a few minutes walk from the Shoreham houseboat community, its the kind of place that’s very difficult to leave. There's the natural beauty of the place and that of the people too, a place where people know how to pull together, and who on the whole share common values. I didn’t get a job as a therapist until many years later but instead set up a charity “Moor Arts” with the aim of providing creative opportunities to people experiencing mental health problems and learning disabilities.

​During this time I took a part-time class in stained glass, and that's when it all began. Initially I was no good at it from a technical point of view, but I loved the process so much and could usually fall back on the materials enough to make a nice enough piece to give to someone for a birthday present, so I just kept making. I had a few exhibitions with my glass work in Shoreham and Brighton, and then the sculptures were born.

The sculptures are a co-creation with my craftsman and wonderful partner, Chris, a plantsman, fine artist and generally phenomenally talented kind of guy. He had found an interesting piece of timber that already had a brilliantly shaped hole in it. I made the glass to fit, we worked out the logistics took lovely photos, made another 5 or 6 and had an exhibition in our garden. They sold like hotcakes. A year later I was ready to give up my therapy work and we have both been making our living solely from the sculptures since. The vast majority of our business comes via a strong online presence through our website, Facebook and Instagram, selling predominantly in the UK and USA, and many other places throughout Europe and further afield in the Middle East and Australia.

"An act of handing it over to Trust, knowing that all will become clear and surrendering to the fact that life isn’t always easy or straight forward and nor should we expect it to be."

Tell us about your work and style, why is it unique?
For many years I have had a daily prayer or just reminder to myself “I offer my power in the service of Love". I say it most days, in fact it’s the nearest thing I have to a spiritual practice. If I haven’t said it already I always say it, at least in my head when I get to my glass cutting table. It’s something I started doing when I was in a tight spot in my life. When I realised that life felt much better and had more meaning if I dedicated my actions and my being to Love. An act of handing it over to Trust, knowing that all will become clear and surrendering to the fact that life isn’t always easy or straight forward and nor should we expect it to be. 

You get to a certain age where all the difficulties that came your way make sense, we can not have the light without the shadow, but we can be very clear about our intentions. My work is anchored in a belief and a trust of all that is good, seeking to embody wholeness and connection. So this is the essence of my work, and work to me is all of it, the glass, the housework, parenting, gardening, the photography, the yoga practice - its actually all the same thing. When I’m able to be fully present with any of these areas of my life, magic happens, I just know what to do. So there it is, my stained glass practice is  just that, a practice, I just keep making what comes through. I try not to interfere too much on an intellectual level, I mean if I did I would never have been able to put myself out there as an artist at all, I would still be condemning the first piece I ever made.

I never thought I would make my money as an artist, but people just liked it. I think there is something in the pieces that I make that speak of vulnerability, my style has a simplicity, a childlike charm. An obsession with including all the colours, it speaks of wholeness. Once I have the whole spectrum of glass laid out on my table I feel there's a healing vibration in that, it just makes me feel better somehow. I find it hard to imagine anyone who doesn’t wonder at the beauty of a rainbow in the sky, it’s something universal. My work also includes simple symbols - the heart, the star, the rain drop / leaf shape, I suppose when we use these kind of shapes we are directly communicating something about what we all innately seem to understand, our connection to each other, our connection to nature, ourselves, and the universe and beyond.

"My work also includes simple symbols - the heart, the star, the rain drop / leaf shape, I suppose when we use these kind of shapes we are directly communicating something about what we all innately seem to understand."

Why are you attracted to your preferred mediums?
I never tire of the alchemic relationship between light and glass. The reflections being as beautiful as the piece itself, or maybe even more beautiful. I'm not your usual stained glass artist, its an exact art form that is really for the perfectionist. I’m the opposite, I'm an imperfectionist, and I think that that is part of my work. Eager to move away from straight lines and traditional ways of working within this medium I found my circles, my curves, my wonky lines and there I stay. Maybe the glass work is not as flawless as you would find in a church window but when the light shines through, the wonky line is no longer an issue, the colours just come alive and we can appreciate what is seen. This is how I feel about us imperfect beings, at the end of the day we all have the same hurts and insecurities, its just whether we are given the opportunities to let our light shine anyway. The search for perfection is a pointless and impossible task, we are not perfect and neither are we meant to be. If we can just view the world through a different lens it can all change before our eyes. Glass gives me this moment of magical transformation.

"I never tire of the alchemic relationship between light and glass. The reflections being as beautiful as the piece itself, or maybe even more beautiful."

"Stained glass historically has a sacred essence with its place in our churches and I embrace this fully."

Tell about your achievements and notable projects.
What comes to mind when I read this question is not any particular major exhibitions and wonderful commissions, though I have had those. But the thing I feel most proud of is the greenhouse Chris and I made together last year at our allotment. The brick base was already there from 50 years ago, falling apart but still there, a foundation on which to build a dream. Chris made the wooden frame and I recycled all the old glass from the derelict corpse of a thing we inherited, by heating the water on a fire washing them down and cutting each piece to fit. It was a big job, but we’ve used the same skills we use to work on the sculptures to create it. Now its filled with tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, figs, peppers, chillies and a great deal more to feed ourselves now and way into the future. That to me is more meaningful than any prestigious show or award, its giving us freedom and beauty and self -sufficiency. It’s always about making beautiful spaces, growing plants / food / family with us, we seem to do pretty well with it all. I go to our allotment every day; it’s a place where we can forget all about the terrible things that are happening in the world, naturally social distance and grow our food and flowers, yes flowers, that’s another part of what we do, we grow a silly amount of dahlias mainly. It great, we’ve done the flowers for many a friends wedding.

As far as my achievements with the glass work goes, it has been our deep honour to make many memorial pieces and even a few head “stones” for graves in Germany. I was also asked to make a piece encasing some of the ashes of my friend's father. The ashes formed a very subtle, delicate constellation-like shape onto the clear glass, the actual ash is hardly visible but mysteriously woven into the fabric of the glass. When I worked as a therapist, it was mainly with the elderly. I was fascinated by the care we give to those who are at the end of their lives, it often feels that we are removed from this natural process. There is much taboo around death in our society. It is of course, very painful to imagine life without our loved ones but we need to accept there’s nothing we can ​​do about the fact that we all die. I hope that my death will be one that unites people, and creates an opportunity for more Love to grow between people who might not have got to know each other if they didn’t share a love for me. There is beauty in our departure from this earthly place, it’s not easy to see through the eyes of grief but it’s there. I definitely feel the presence of my loved ones who have passed over, I feel their support and love in the memories I hold in connection with my daily life. The fact that I can make something for someone that might make them feel some comfort and closeness to their loved ones gives me a real sense of satisfaction. Stained glass historically has a sacred essence with its place in our churches and I embrace this fully when it comes to these special pieces.

"Once the pieces are made, it is common to see Chris and I running down to the beach, lugging great big sculptures to the river bed to catch the light before it goes. It’s magic when the conditions are right and we know we have captured something special."

What are you passionate about? 
I am passionate about living, about living well and learning to live better and about passing this on to the younger generations. For me this means taking more responsibility to create the world we want to live in. ​​Growing our own food, planting trees, supporting projects and charities that are really making a difference. We all need to take more personal responsibility for what we have created as a nation and a global community. It’s so easy to feel disempowered, people have been dulled into a false sense of reality where an individual is powerless against the status quo, but we mustn’t underestimate the difference an individual can make.

The world can seem pretty bleak right now; reading the papers, listening to the news, not knowing what story to believe in the first place as we are doubtless only being told one side of anything anyway. I try to move away from all of that, it only messes with my head. Whilst I know my core truth inside, all individuals are created equal, we need to look after our planet and do what we can to restore its health, and that whatever the question, Love will hold the answer. So whilst I respect anyone who goes out and stands up for our rights and tries to put things right, my way is to create something different, and
offer what I can as the individual I am. Support the bees by growing as many flowers as possible, support our family by growing the food that we eat, this for me is empowering and making a difference. I truly believe we need to simplify our lives, stop taking from the earth and start really nurturing it, stop being such a selfish race, always striving for more and start making moves in our communities here and now to create something better, something much more whole and something we can actually pass down.

​Tell us about some the feedback you have received.
I do have many messages of thanks and appreciation  but seeing as it arrived on my doorstep this morning I will share an extract from a letter from a friend, I had sent her one of my hearts in the post. In her letter she wrote “Your art work really seems to Hail the Divine, both externally and internally and I thank you so much for the reminder to be grateful.”
​

"I am an optimist in these crazy times, a sensitive soul who believes deeply in the power of Love and Beauty, that to see beauty in this world and each other we can learn to Love."

What are you currently working on? 
My main project at the moment is a 13 piece commission for a Sausalito Houseboat in California. This as you can imagine really ticks my boxes, loving houseboats as I do. I started 2020 with a yoga retreat with one of my best friends, Yvonne Coomber a painter and all round wonderful woman. In our blissed out yoga-ed state we sat and chatted, somewhere in that she realised that my initials spelt out the word LOVED if you added the O and E. It seems pretty apt so Chris has created a little LoVeD logo and right now its a bit of a focus to bring that in where we can, somehow incorporating a little LoVeD stamp onto the sculptures and working it in with future works.

​How does your location influence your creativity?
I live on a strip of land between the river Adur and the sea in Shoreham. We bought our home when I was pregnant at the beginnings of our family days. My son was born in this house, and 14 years later, every day I rejoice at the beauty that's around us. In the summer months the sun sets over the river and we watch it most evenings from our back doorstep or our bedroom. The beach is 2 minutes walk, always reliably there for when I need to stomp or jump in and and refresh. Shoreham was the hub of the film industry from 1914 for a decade, it was the place to be if you were an up and coming actor, it was chosen for the wonderful light and big skies, it still holds this magic. The work is completely a product and an expression of this wonderful place, the wood used for the sculptures are old groyne timbers (sea-defence wood). Whilst not exactly found on our local beach but bought from timber merchants, this is wood that has been weathered and shaped from decades of the sea moving around it. Once the pieces are made, it is common to see Chris and I running down to the beach, lugging great big sculptures to the river bed to catch the light before it goes. It’s magic when the conditions are right and we know we have captured something special.

"Art has an incredibly important role in all this as well, both the making of and the appreciating. We need more space to express ourselves as we have all been through something extraordinary, a time of difficulty holding within it some golden nuggets, the seeds of possibility for change."

​How has the Covid pandemic influenced your work?
As soon as I first learnt how to cut glass well enough I started making little hearts. Now, there are probably around 2000 of these hearts out in the world and in so many different countries. When the pandemic craziness began I retreated to my garden workshop, leaving my shared community studio. We had sculpture commissions to work on but that all felt too big and besides working with wood dust is no good for the lungs so we really felt to look after ourselves and do what was manageable. Everyone was in a state of shock, I felt I wanted to reach out to as many people as I could, so I made a rainbow heart design and put it out there, within 24 hours I had over 100 orders. People needed to feel the Love. When you are making in big batches it offers the opportunity to work in a more meditative state, I love making little packages for people and sending them out on mass. All artists will say that something changes when it becomes “work” but I think there's nothing to stop you making it “play” again, for me that comes from making what I make as a gift again. There may be a monetary exchange that happens but I still hope that the person receiving feels the Love that I pour into all the pieces I make, be they 6cm or 6 feet in size. 

​I was joking before the lockdown how my life had got too geographically small, I mean I was either at home, at my studio 5 minutes walk away or at my allotment another 2 mins walk away from the studio. For the first 6 weeks I worked in our workshop shed in the garden where I used to work before glass became a means of making money, so life got a little smaller. I didn’t mind that. I also welcomed the opportunity to have unlimited time with my family, and not have anything at all written on the calendar, an open invitation to hang out at my allotment and explore quiet, explore calm, sleep well, eat well and work. Then yes, I started to miss my freedom, missed my parents and going dancing, seeing my friends, hugging my friends, but the worst thing of all has been not being able to be natural with the children in my life. The really little ones who don’t understand what all this nonsense is about, literally having to back away from them while they ask for a cuddle. I mean that’s heart breaking. We have a lovely 2 year old neighbour who was used to coming round and hanging out with us, suddenly that had to change and for him, that was impossible to understand. So we made Sunday afternoon Puppet Shows over our dividing wall, that was nice, finding a way we could connect without touching. Once we find a way, us humans are good at adapting.

The years since I turned 40, have definitely been richer, on all levels, and with it geographically smaller. I no longer have the wanderlust I had throughout my life and just want to be home. By home I mean within the kilometre that holds my home and garden, my studio space and my allotment. This lockdown time has taught me I don’t need to fill my life so much, that we don’t need to be together to be together. Its been a wonderful time for examining and extracting from our lives what is not essential and what we could chose to  change for good. Now there is such a high level of anxiety for people; coming out of lockdown seems in some ways more daunting than going in. It's going to require a lot of sensitivity and tolerance, vulnerable people are going to need a whole lot of support.

​Art has an incredibly important role in all this as well, both the making of and the appreciating. We need more space to express ourselves as we have all been through something extraordinary, a time of difficulty holding within it some golden nuggets, the seeds of possibility for change.

I am an optimist in these crazy times, a sensitive soul who believes deeply in the power of Love and Beauty, that to see beauty in this world and each other we can learn to Love again. In these times of incredible separation emerges a solidarity and dare I say “Up-rising”, I don’t mean this in the revolutionary sense but in an evolutionary way. If you look at the youth of today (or at least the ones I know) you have to believe the worlds in safe hands. I mean the technology is there to make a better future right? Now it just takes more people to make the right decisions for the collective, I have to believe that this is part of a process of humanity waking up and eventually learning how to do things another way. Let’s hope people don’t have to press the snooze button too many times, we need to wake up now.


www.louisevdurham.com