Zanfirico Pear

Artist / Maker Joey Kirkpatrick ((American, b. 1952))

Artist / Maker Flora C. Mace ((American, b. 1949))

Date1997

MediumGlass, blown

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of the artists in memory of Virginia Kirkpatrick with additional funds provided by Bruce McKee. In the permanent collection, Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2015.125

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Artists Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace were introduced to each other by studio glass artist Dale Chihuly in 1979 at the Pilchuck School of Glass in Tacoma, WA. Since then, they have worked collaboratively for 40 years. Signing their works of art together, Mace and Kirkpatrick are represented in museum collections across the country and recognized for their innovative contributions to studio glass. Kirkpatrick and Mace were also the first women to teach at Pilchuck. Kirkpatrick was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and completed her undergraduate degree at University of Iowa before attending graduate classes in glass during the late 1970s at Iowa State University. Mace, born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, earned a BS from Plymouth State College, N.H., and an MFA from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Together they have spent their careers perfecting their techniques with a mutual interest in drawing within glass and connecting humanity with nature. They often transform everyday objects into large-scale blown glass works of art, challenging the viewer to reconsider the world around them. These whimsical sculptures, often fruits, use highly skilled techniques such as zanfirico to achieve a striking result. In the traditional Venetian glass making technique of zanfirico canes of glass are gently heated, elongated and twisted to form intricate patterns that are then fused to clear blown glass.

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