03/18/09

Welcome

My name is Carren McDaniel and I am the artist who created these stained glass works of art. Because of my background, as you will see as you read further, I can offer one-of-a-kind, unique pieces of art. I love to draw and create original designs for my stained glass pieces.  I live in Fresno, California where we just moved into a wonderful new home complete with my own indoor art studio/workshop.  I am a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 4. I have been an artist for as long as I can remember-I have been working in the Art field for over 30 years. I began in drawing and painting. My favorite medium was oil paint and pen and ink sketches. Over the years I have dabbled in many mediums. I have been sewing since I was 13 and I have created many patterns and quilts. In college I discovered clay. As a child I spent many hours with modeling clay, creating my own little world filled with animals of all kinds. In college I wanted to make my mother a porcelain doll so I took a class on sculpture. I loved this medium because you could do so many different things with sculpture clay. I then took pottery classes. I learned to throw pots (on a pottery wheel) and to hand build pieces. I also enjoyed this new challenge, but I discovered that I most enjoyed the finishing step, the firing of the piece to bring out the beautiful colors of the glazes. Soon I was creating my own glaze colors, trying to achieve a particular effect of one glaze firing to 2 different colors. It was fun, but the process to finally get to the "color" phase was long. Then I discovered stained glass. Now the colors are immediate and I can use all my other talents to create a unique finished piece of art. The drawing, pattern making, sewing and the clay process all come together in my stained glass work. I now believe all the years I spent in other art fields I was in training for my current work.+