Daviea Davis Moving Glass Studio to Wilkins School Community Center

Daviea Davis approaches her work with the belief that glass art craves three simple things – light, a viewer and the chance to take someone's breath away.

A self-taught glass artist, Davis said one of her favorite aspects of the art form is its accessibility to anyone.

"Pick the glass that is like 'oh la la' to you, glue it all close together and let it take you away," she said.

Davis, 46, of Edgewood is moving her home garage studio to the While her own studio doesn't have heat, she searches for a winter space each year.

In exchange for annual community glass projects at the center, Davis has been offered a yearly winter home as long as she wants at the community center.

"It will be open for ideas and that's a great reason to work in the community," she said. "It's all about 'come, come,' and see what we can do together."

Patty Doody runs the community center and is Davis' neighbor. When she heard the local artist was looking for a space, she approached the board and the exchange plan was created. The first glass art project will appear above the main entrance inside of the center.

A mother of three teenagers and wife of David Davis, who works at Global Links, the neighborhood glass artist has always had a love of color, beginning with painting. After having children, her work shifted with the natural interruptions that come with family life.

"I found some ashtray tiles and started working with those and I liked it because I could leave it unfinished and it would stay how I left it until I had time to go back," Davis said. "When someone gave me some glass I liked it so much better than paint because the colors are so rich."

Davis created a countertop by fixing glass to a French door for Gardenalia around 2003, a store in East Liberty. After picking the piece off of the ground and taking in the colors as light invaded and illuminated each piece, Davis said she was hooked.

"I didn't think about it and when I stood it up, the light came through and I thought, 'Oh my God, I am never going back,'" she said.

Davis has been collecting glass for 15 years, primarily from Glenn Greene of Glenn Greene's Stained Glass Studio in Regent Square. Any scraps he sweeps off of his studio floor are given to Davis.

Greene said he reuses his own glass, but donates to Davis because she is able to use the excess that he cannot use in his own work.

"I really like her approach to the glass," Greene said. "I like the parallels I see to my work and she has a fun and spunky spirit. When the energy of a person comes through the art, that's a formula for good stuff."

She also receives materials from Youghiogheny Glass in Connellsville, which donated the glass for two large pieces Davis completed at Pittsburgh International Airport. "Old Pittsburgh and New Pittsburgh" are two wall-sized glass art pieces she created with fellow artists in Pittsburgh.

"It's right after security in that moment of cuckoo when you are putting your shoes back on," Davis said.

Davis also has worked on about 30 houses in the East End area and recently created 25 new pieces of art centered on Frick Park.

Davis buys salvaged windows at Construction Junction, uses Elmer's Glue All to apply the glass pieces and hangs it in a window after the finishing touches are made. Anyone is welcome to join her in the studio to use her materials and tools.

"We just have fun – if you don't mind Jeff Buckley on repeat," she said.  "When it's all done, I just sit in front of it and let it take me on a trip. When I take the glass and cut the glass, I don't know what it's going to look like when it's really illuminated and it's vertical -- it's a treat."

Suzan Schultz of Mount Lebanon recently had a major piece of glass art created in her new home by Davis. An eight-foot tall door is covered in colorful pieces of glass that changes with sunlight each day.

"She can take a piece and bring so much light and color to it, and yet there is also so much peace that is evoked from it," Schultz said.

During the day, the door glows at different angles, she said.

"Glass will make itself," Davis said. "It's like cooking with good ingredients."