Check out Franklin County Visitors Bureau’s new internet reality show “Food Fight” (and my logo and branding in motion)!

Mmmm, crabcakes.

Cleaning out.

Happy Holidays!

Glass blower comes full circle from HACC student to Adjunct Professor

Kristin Horst has come full circle from being a Palmyra High School student enrolled in HACC’s arts magnet program learning glass blowing to being an adjunct professor at HACC teaching the art.

“The art program at my high school was good, but not as good as college level classes,” said Horst. She took her core classes in high school and went to HACC to earn 15 college credits, taking Drawing 1 and 2, Sculpture 1 and 2, and on Fridays rotating through different classes including jewelry and print making and then glass blowing.

“I remember Bob Troxell telling us as students we were so lucky to have the [glass blowing] studio at HACC, because there wasn’t another one around for 100 miles,” she said. Such studios or hot shops, as they are called, still are not abundant in Central Pennsylvania, because they are expensive to operate.

Horst left HACC after completing the arts magnet program and enrolled in the School of the Art Institute in Chicago where she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree (BFA) in 2005. She worked “random jobs for a year” before returning to school, attending the International Academy of Design and Technology, also in Chicago.

She started her graphic design career doing package design for general consumer products including medical package design, and doing glass blowing on the side.

Horst worked at Chicago Hot Glass, Chicago’s only public access glass blowing studio, for six years, teaching and helping the owner with public relations. “I didn’t even realize that what I was doing was public relations,” she said, about reaching out to galleries, designing the studio’s flyers, answering the phone and other things. “But I was being paid in studio time, which is a glass blower’s dream.”

After 10 years in Chicago, she returned to Central Pennsylvania in January 2010 and for six months worked at WITF in a temporary position as a graphic designer with a friend who did lampworking. On a lunch break one day, they went to HACC to sign up for a lampworking class and were told HACC was looking for someone to teach glass blowing.

“It was really crazy. I was just signing up for a class in December, and then I was teaching in January,” said Horst. “I love teaching at HACC. I’m still finding my way with every aspect of it, since I’m teaching on an academic level. But it’s been great to be back, reconnecting with my old professors and working alongside them. I credit their help and guidance with taking the first step in becoming a professional artist. They really pushed me to make great work.”

Horst says because of going to school in Chicago, when she thinks of school she still thinks of high rises in general. But then, “the first couple weeks at HACC were surreal, and I was seeing the college experience through a whole new set of eyes,” she said. “I felt like I was teaching in Europe. The campus is so beautiful, the people are friendly, the other instructors were helpful, and the students are fun and bright. Spring semester has been awesome so far.”

She’s obviously passionate about glass and teaching, enjoying the variety of students with majors in just about all areas. One student drove from Gettysburg twice a week to take glass blowing.

“All of my students in ‘Intro to Glass’ are so eccentric and yet very different from each other in their personalities. It’s been an awesome experience to work with them all over the course of several months, watching them bond with glass. They’re curious about glass. They’ve seen it on TV with Dale Chihuly, one of the most famous living Artists.

“In the beginning, it wasn’t clear what their goals were. The hot shop is only open two months of the semester. The rest of the time we were fusing, kind of like making stained glass. Before, they enjoyed what they were doing, but toward the end of the semester, they were getting addicted to blowing and having ‘aha’ moments,” said Horst.

She has enjoyed watching her students “grow by leaps and bounds,” for example learning how to blow a vase in just a month and a half. “I can already see that they will miss the medium and will come back or rent time at studios in Reading or Denver, where two former HACC students are opening a studio.

“This is another way I think the college keeps giving back. We’re really starting to build a glass community in Central PA,” said Horst.

Horst also telecommutes as a graphic designer at Franklin County Visitors Bureau and is a freelance designer with Kristin Horst Design, where her favorite materials include glass, clay, metal, wood, paper, ink, digital forms of media, photography, paint and working with found objects.

The things you find when you google yourself…

I donated a glass vase to a wonderful cause, the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art. You can check them out here.

I don’t know about the new visual representation of USDA diet guidelines. This indicates that all of these things equal a balanced meal. The round desert bowl looks like…desert! And that’s what dairy so often is, served in a round bowl…no, that doesn’t look like soup to me!

I say, try again, USDA. That Food Guide Pyramid was around for 20some years…this is definitely not any more clear, and if anything, more confusing as to what we should eat every day, how often, and in what amount.

I guess I’m a My Plate[r] hater. 

We’ve been having some intense storms lately in PA. Stumbled acorss this weirdo picture while googling “Tornado PA”.

I’m now in a year-long Graphic Design contract with Franklin County Visitors Bureau. They’ve been just wonderful to work with thus far! I think it’s going to be a great year.

I’ve been teaching Glass at Harrisburg Area Community college during the Spring 2011 semester.

My 7-year old neighbor gave me these glasses yesterday.