Visitors to the The Finer Arts Gallery will notice a fresh, new look as the Cave Creek gallery just completed its six-month rotation of art in its 4,000-square-foot gallery. Many of the gallery’s 50 artists are showing new work and several new artists to the gallery have contributed to the gallery’s diverse collection of fine art.
To celebrate, the gallery is hosting a special “Art Affaire” event from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21. The unique gallery is located inside the historic Treehouse building, 6137 E. Cave Creek Road, in Cave Creek. Glass artist Pat Isaacson, of Scottsdale, is a featured artist.
Mathematician discovers passion for fused glass
Pat Isaacson had a lifetime love affair with math until she discovered her passion for creating glass art at the age of 65. A co-owner of The Finer Arts Gallery, Isaacson creates beautiful, contemporary fused glass tapestries, bowls, wall art, and tabletop sculptures that feature rich, bold colors and geometric shapes.
Born and raised in Utah, Isaacson began her career working for IBM as a systems engineer. Later, while living in Chicago, she wrote art gallery management systems using FoxPro programming for five art galleries.
“It was before Microsoft Windows became popular, and instead of paying me for my services, some of my clients would give me credits toward art. That’s how I started collecting glass,” Isaacson said.
She loved how the light played with glass, and she continued to add unique pieces to her collection. While at a Christmas party in 2008, she struck up a conversation with an artist who challenged her to tap into her creativity.
“I was admiring her work, and I told her I wished that I could do that, and she said, ‘why don’t you?’ Prior to that, I had tried oil painting and watercolor, and I can’t draw, so I had convinced myself that I was not an artist. In 2009, I enrolled in a fused glass class, and I was immediately hooked. From that moment on, my love affair with glass art intensified, and it was not long after that I bought a kiln and began creating glass from my kitchen table,” she said.
When Isaacson moved to a property that included a smaller building behind the house, she turned it into a studio and acquired another kiln. She took more classes and workshops, and she began experimenting on her own.
“I still love math, and in many ways, the work I’m doing with fused glass is similar in that both math and art involve solving problems,” she said. “Working with fused glass appeals to me because of the mathematics involved and the geometric quality, especially when I am creating my tapestries.”
She also likes the fact that she is always experimenting and learning. She listens to books while working in her studio, and she said that she often gets lost in her work.
Isaacson said she is grateful that she mustered up the courage to take glass art classes later in her life. “I spent the first 65 years of my life as a mathematician, which I loved. And then I discovered how much I enjoyed creating fused glass art. It was like I was reborn,” she said.
Visitors to The Finer Arts Gallery will find diverse paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed media, photography, glass, wood, fiber, ceramics, jewelry, and other original work. For details, call 480-488-2923 or visit thefinerartsgallery.com.