Chandelier for a King

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Chandelier for a King

Artist Sharyn O'Mara American, born 1966

Date2018

Dimensions37 1/2 × 30 in. (95.3 × 76.2 cm)

MediumCanine noseprints on glass; digital print Paper: Lexjet Sunset Photo Metallic

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, by exchange

Object number

2020.20C

Not on View

Exhibition HistoryCorning, New York, Corning Museum of Glass, New Glass Now, (edition 1/3, Chandelier for a King), May 12, 2019-January 5, 2020.Label TextSharyn O’Mara’s “Chandelier” series uses photography to express the commonplace presence of glass in our lives and its everyday interaction with both human and animal (specifically, her own pet dogs). O’Mara explains of the series: I document the nose prints of our three beloved shepherds (two have since died since several of these images were made), left on the glass as they peer out the window awaiting our return, imprints of an accrual of time and longing. With them, through them, the mundane front windowpanes are transformed into luminous fixtures of translucent painterly marks and drips that represent the emotion, connection, and experience of these sweet creatures, and mark their—and our—often too fleeting existence. O’Mara uses digital photography and Photoshop to transfer to paper the dog marks that built up over months on the sheets of industrial glass. She then creates a mirror image of the nose-prints to create a symmetrical, chandelier-like drawing. The chandelier form, historically represented in glass as well, transforms the love of dog for human into a veritable thing of beauty that illuminates and captivates those in its presence.