Hi there, I’m Julie Giardini, and I have been a full time artist for almost 30 years, and I had the honor of being selected by Ambassador Lynch to be included in the. Artwork that she’s showing at the residence and the pieces that she’s showing of mine are from my boat series.

I have a couple more here just to show you some examples of other boat series I’ve done. I wanted to tell you the inspiration for these particular sculptures. The boat forms to me are a symbol of transportation, and I think that’s a metaphor for the way we travel through our lives.

And the boat is such an iconic vessel that when we think about how things change and evolve. For me, the boat is something that has always been just a perfect example of that. So I hope you’ve been enjoying them.

The pieces that are at the residence are called navigation. Sorry, celestial navigation. One and the other one is called Vessel of Knowledge. And that one has lots of books in it, and they’re kind of stacked within the vessel.

And to me, that was just such a beautiful idea of knowledge pouring forth. So I construct them of steel and then I add different medium to them, like paper the books. This one has small gold leaf. I do some different Petina treatments and things like that.

So hope you are enjoying them. And I’m so sorry I can’t be there in person. And I look forward to meeting you in the future. Thanks. Hi, everyone. I’m Ken Gardini, and I have been an artist for most of my life, actually full time for about 30 years, and I was fortunate to be selected by Ambassador Lynch

to have my artwork there in the embassy. And the pieces that you have there are Lagrange point two. And science is the doorway. Lagrange point to an Lagrange point one, which is here behind me, were inspired by a lecture that I saw by the leading Nassa scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope Project, John Mather.

And it inspired me enough to really look into. Lagrange points and and how we use them to place our stationary satellites in orbit. That inspired me to do the research and talk and find out about Lagrange points and what they were.

And that with my NASA experience and my art experience, give me a chance to really explore orbits and the abstract nature of space itself. The use of the Saturn five rocket that’s in that piece, as well as this piece.

And also science is the doorway is because as a child, I guess I was in 1960, I was maybe 10 years old when we landed on the moon. So I really was influenced by that event. And for years, I wanted to be an astronaut.

I did get to work for NASA, but I never quite got to go into space. But I really was able to be there in the control room supporting the the astronauts, especially later on in the in the space shuttle program as well.

So I really, really felt fortunate to be part of that. More than that, though, I’m feeling very fortunate to be part of or to be an artist, to be an artist has been a lifelong passion. I do everything from photography, metal work, mixed media painting.

As you can see, there’s a lot of elements in my work that I bring together and really make them, I think, cohesive. So. I hope you’re enjoying the artwork. I’m always open to questions, you can contact me through the website and reach out.

I’m always happy to answer questions about the work, and I hope you’re enjoying it. By the way, Science is the Doorway is the title of the other piece. I just I just think that if the world understood that, we would be in a lot better place.

So thank you for including me in this in this exhibition and allowing me to be part of this. Hello. I have one lynch, and I am so flattered to be asked to show some of my artwork at this very wonderful program at the residence of the ambassador for her program on travel.

I have a house that many of my paintings are being shown in this display. I really started my interest a penny a long time ago. And when I was in living in Germany, I met a teacher, Coach Smith, and I took up oil painting with him, and he showed me how to sew perspective and mixing colors and

all the basics of painting and did some work in oils. And I enjoyed doing it very much. I gave up my painting when I came home to the United States as I have more family obligations and as a school nurse and also and to our children.

And so I did stay home and take care of them. And well, during that time, Reg took up stained glass and I was very happy doing the same kind of signator to lamps and enjoy have them in my home right now, and I enjoy doing that.

Then I decided that I would go back to painting, which was my first love, and I did my first oils. And then I changed to I did a few watercolors and I changed acrylics and I hadn’t done any acrylic, sort of.

My children have enjoyed so many of them in the houses, and I have sold a number of pieces. So I really have enjoyed painting very much. And I’m very happy to have. And added to your display here at the ambassador’s ambassador’s residence.

Thank you. Bye bye. Hi, I’m Josh Simpson, and I’m a glass floor. Molten glass is a mix of sand and metallic oxides combined with extraordinary blinding heat. The result is a material that flows like honey when it’s hot.

Glass is alive. It moves gracefully in response to gravity and centripetal force. It possesses an inner light and brilliant, radiant heat that make it simultaneously one of the most fascinating and one of the most frustrating materials for an artist to work with.

Class has held my attention for 50 years now, which is amazing because I have interests that scatter me in 100 other directions. Physics, chemistry and the workings of the universe fascinate me. I’m mesmerized by color form, contrast, complexity and the properties of light.

But most of all, I love fire. When I was a kid, I climb trees and tall rocks to get a different view of the world. Today, I love the unique perspective I get by flying my own little airplane.

In 1969, the Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell, looked at his spacecraft window and observed that he could cover the earth with his thumb. He made me realize that our earth had seemed so vast and limitless is also just like a little blue marble floating in the black void of space.

And so I began to make my own planets. Planets are solid glass spheres meant to look like imaginary worlds that might exist somewhere in the universe. In these globes, you can sometimes imagine swirling oceans, continents, perhaps teeming with life or signs of alien spaceships orbiting in the atmosphere above the large mega planet.

Here at the embassy is one of my favorites. It has vibrantly colored landscapes, blue oceans and mysterious structures. Planets are made by gathering of molten core of glass from my furnace and adding layer after layer of various elements that depict details I see in my mind.

My interest in astronomy and astrophysics also takes form in large circular place that I call stellar disks. Two of these disks are on display here at the embassy, like planets, stellar disks also begin with the gather of molten glass.

But to make a disk, I expand the shape by blowing through my blowpipe pipe to produce a thin walled bowl form. Sometimes I add a contrasting color around the lip. The pieces then further enlarged using special tools. The pattern on the surface of each disc is created by melting silver and other metals into the glass to form

swirling patterns of color. The final step is to spin the ball on my pipe as fast as I can to flared out into a disc shape. My studio is a converted dairy barn in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Every night, the last thing I do is walk from the house to my studio to check on the furnaces.

Sometimes seeing in the aurora borealis, watching a thunderstorm forming down the valley or just looking at the sky on a perfect summer night compels me to translate some of the wonder of the universe into my glass. Hi, I’m Jan Brewer, and I’m so honored to have two of my cropped green circle and Pluto is a planet in

the show at the art of the embassies in Georgetown, Keanna. Thanks, Ambassador Lynge. I can’t really tell you all the details of those quotes. First of all, I show you another one. Look at all these individual fabrics. I use one at a time sewn onto the back.

Well, stars, but the sky there are stories here create. Here’s a little more sky. And from a distance, it creates a horn. Then I’m watching will shine through all layers to give more substance and texture. This is the back of the quote, very detailed.

So anyway, those are my quelch, I’m natual in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Enjoy.