Artist Statement

by Erin Dougherty Williams

Things were simpler on the boat: an oddly satisfying blend of minimalism, survival tasks and relaxation. Days were spent cooking, spearfishing, cleaning the gear,  the fish, the kitchen, and fighting over the last 1/2 gallon of freshwater  in the shower bag. Meetings were held with great deliberation on if we would stay at this sandbar for the afternoon or sail a few miles downwind to the next sandbar. A geographic feature identical in size, shape and remoteness. We told time by the color of the sky. I was almost always on my way to bed before the the birds nested and sky turned purple. 

On a sailboat, you are ways looking for ways to drop weight. Wine bottles are heavy and a luxury that didn’t last long. When they were empty, Conrad stuffed our coordinates into them with a hope that someone would find them and drop us a note. As the waves lapped the hauls and rocked us to sleep we made up stories about the octopus that would pry the bottle open in their infinite curiosity. Or the tourist that would find one and think they had found a long lost 17th century  ship’s last cry for help: until they saw our email address. But we mostly assumed that the bottles would break, tumble in the surf and be tossed in the sand until they became sea glass… and eventually sand again. A full cycle. As a glassblower Conrad often notes that the origin of all glass is sand. So we found it fitting that eventually the bottles would all be weathered down and mixed in with the sand from whence it came. But not before leaving us with a few stories; some fiction, others remarkably true. Like the fisherman 3500 nautical miles away in Ireland, that found one of our message in a bottles after it caught a ride on the gulf stream and into one of his nets. Covered in barnacles, it had been drifting for over a year before reaching him. There were also the more local but equally as excited sunbathers that found the bottles in the sparsely populated islands nearby. 

For years we marked summers by slow slumbering days on the water with family and friends that became family. It was not unusual to not see another sole with the exception of a weekly freshwater and provision run. Years before I drifted into the picture,  Conrad had been growing his love for the simplistic times. Those core memories still inspire Conrad’s work, and served as a source of inspiration as we conceptualized this project. Particularly, the uniquely transformative qualities of sea glass. It’s origins often mundane, it becomes something new and beautiful over time. But most importantly it’s place in a cycle of creation, ability to inspire storytelling and mystery around it’s origin and it’s inherent marking of a moment in time for a material that has been many things and will again take on other forms. 

Much like the literal layering of the glass pieces floating above, we wanted to create the opportunity for layers of meaning and referencing the importance and influence of place. We then reinforce these conceptual layers through reoccurring visual themes.

Our personal histories and motivations converge in this project. Far from the todays exquisitely designed  space that now houses the Naples Players, I grew up doing homework backstage while my mom rehearsed in a place that always had a distinct odor of fresh paint and cigarettes. On the weekends I learned to paint sets.Then and for the rest of my life, I preferred painting, creating with my hands over the uncomfortable undressing of a spotlight. But through my mother’s undying love of the spotlight, I would for the next 40 years, have front row seats to the awe inspiring evolution of The Naples Players and the spaces they would bring to life.  Fueled by collective passion and talents, each volunteer  was willing to evolve in myriads of  ways to support a vision and purpose. Some for years, others for decades, would share their own  form of contribution, and moment in time. They are a patchwork of individual talents that far exceeds the sum of it’s parts . 

This personal understanding of their history inspired us to design an installation made up of a pieces that are a reflection of those individuals and that transformation and the collective beauty individuals bring to the community as a whole. Each form is inspired by the fluidity and vulnerability evocative of each volunteer as they collectives flow upwards into their next evolution.

Our vision and histories intertwined when deciding on the treatment of the glass. We chose to create only partial transparency for several reasons . We wanted the light to bounce back off of the pieces rather than traveling through,  much the way a performer takes the energy from the audience, their cast mates and reflects it back. 

We also wanted to take the surface treatment as an opportunity to reference place, our hometown of Naples. Most of us have either come or stayed for the same thing, the coastline. Rather than referencing the obvious fauna and flora of a costal town, we wanted to focus on one of the most transformative treasures buried just beneath the surface, sea glass. Our mutual intrigue with it’s beauty and ability to inspire storytelling felt fitting for the theater.  How long it has been at sea? How far it traveled, shape-shifted? Will it be discovered and cherished before returning to it’s origins as sand?  

The visual coastal themes occur not just in the surface treatment, but in the fluidity of the shapes themselves. Individual forms emphasize the fluidity of the glass in its molten state and carries through the liquidity of water. A quality that stands as a metaphor for the afore mentioned talents, flexibility of the theater group as an ever growing and changing entity built by volunteers and philanthropists hand in hand. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate both conceptually and technically with the immensely talented glassblower Jeff Ballard to bring this vision to life. 

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