Through the looking glass
Susan Hood has always had a deep passion for art in its various forms. She dabbled in painting, pottery, and sculpting, yet nothing compelled her to pursue art full-time until 1987, when she took a course in stained glass. "Stained glass completely changed my direction and focus," she says. "It was the only art form that didn't leave me empty and exhausted after the creative process." Hood leapt into full-time studio work and before long was making a name for herself as an accomplished stained glass artist.
Fast forward to 1999, when Hood and her husband, Bill, moved to Yarmouth, on the tip of Nova Scotia's southwestern shore, after living in Chile and Australia for Bill's work in the mining industry. Together they built an art studio called The Glass Harp Gallery (www.glassharpgallery.com), where Hood continues to create stunning glass pieces and attract attention from an international clientele.
The artist, surrounded by her work: "Stained glass led me to new heights of love for light and glass."
In 2001 Hood won the Taurus Ring Award, bestowed by California–based Gemini Saw Company, for a piece titled "Paint Cans." In 2003 she accepted a commission to create a 15-foot-high stained glass window for the Delia School of Canada in Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong, which she titled "Discover Canada." "I hid 22 Canadian animals in it, which the children look for," she says, "then the teachers talk about the animals, their habitat, and characteristics." After this commission, Hood's work started to appear in Japan, Australia, Paraguay, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, as well as throughout North America.
Hood is now focusing her artistic attention on lampworking, an ancient technique originally used by Venetians to make glass beads. "When I first discovered lampworking six years ago, I was hooked," she says. "It was another way to manipulate glass, and a way for me to put my passion for glass into smaller, more portable pieces." Hood makes pendants, necklaces, brooches, and bracelets out of unique glass beads.
While Hood may be working on her beads, now and then a special project comes along that she simply can't resist, such as the recent restoration of the stained glass windows in the United Baptist Stone Church in Clarks Harbour, N.S. For two and a half years, Hood painstakingly removed, restored, returned, and reinstalled 21 windows. It was a labour of love; before Hood started working on the windows, she used to drive almost an hour from Yarmouth to Clark's Harbour just to look at them. "They were a magnet for me," she says. "I was drawn to them for years. It was a wonderful project to be part of."
"Her enthusiasm was contagious," says Lynn Blades, the chair of the Stained Glass Restoration Committee. "It's more than just work for Susan; it's a calling. She's a great artist, and we were fortunate to have her for the project."
— Sandra Phinney
