WIP | new VISTA: grassland in 14 panels

January 10, 2024

It’s been a busy 6 weeks in the studio working on a multi-panel 220SF lobby installation. 14 panels each 6.5’ h x 2.5’ w (~16SF) will be installed on a feature wall behind the reception desk and central architectural staircase in a new construction healthcare facility. I have 4 panels to finish with these lush layered greens.

WIP | VISTA: grassland 14 panels at 6.5’ x 2.5’ glass inlay with concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

rough snapshots of completed panels…taking shape!!! c Heather Hancock 2024

more of this in 2024

January 05, 2024

Looking back through 2023 projects to find the themes and ongoing questions…

URBAN RHYTHMS

beauty in the everyday
…clean line and repetition
…looking up perspectives
…shadow and light, surface and dimension
…information fragments
…nature + concrete

ENCODE 3.40 | REFLECT 6.3 | ENCODE 3.42 handcut glass + concrete + paint each 20” x 20” c Heather Hancock 2023

REFLECT 4.8 triptych | hand cut glass + concrete each 32”x32” c Heather Hancock 2023

REFLECT 4.9 urban rhythm diptych | hand cut glass + concrete each 2.5’ x 2’ c Heather Hancock 2023

NATURE with a GRAPHIC TWIST

nature through an ‘urban lens’
…approaching nature’s infinite complexity using urban inspired clean line and hard edges

Grow 5.1 hand cut glass + concrete + paint 20” x 20” c Heather Hancock 2023

urbanVine hand cut glass + concrete + paint 5@2’x2’ c Heather Hancock 2023

glasswall 01 hand cut glass + concrete + paint 4’x1.5’ c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTAS with TEXTURE + SHIMMER

new ideas for big views. landscapes and cityscapes.
…foregrounding tiny things against monumental things
…painted backgrounds
…bold contrasts in texture and shine

VISTA: CO hand cut glass + concrete + paint 2 @ 4’ x 2’ c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTA: Chicago hand cut glass + concrete + paint 3 @ 4’x2.5’ c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTA: prairie hand cut glass + concrete + paint 2.5’ x 5.5’ c Heather Hancock 2023

mood board

December 29, 2023

A recent RFQ called for a mood board …and it was super fun to pull together inspo and relevant sketches. I’m going to make use of this format this year. New relationships and directions always emerge from pulling together inspo and sketches and art pieces. Also. This RFQ reminded me that I really want to see work fabricated in other materials and formats. Step one is cutting in paper + vinyl as a quick way to test new ideas.

urbanVines installed in healthcare setting

December 22, 2023

Loved getting installation images of new grouping of urbanVine pieces. Geometric foliage in crisp white glass pops against the weathered urban concrete background with layering and textures, etching and embossing. A subtle touch of color was worked into this series. Every time I come back to this it evolves in a good a new way.

urbanVine 4.2 5@ 2’ x 2’ glass inlay, concrete, paint c Heather Hancock 2023

detail | urbanVine 5@24”x24” hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

urbanVine 4.2 5@ 2’ x 2’ glass inlay, concrete, paint c Heather Hancock 2023 photo credit Forrest Scott

REFLECT 4.9 urban rhythm

November 17, 2023

This REFLECT diptych is installed in a Manhattan financial services firm, serving as a videoconference background for the executive team. I love it opposite this black and white photography…urban rhythm meets nature’s complexity.

REFLECT 4.9 urban rhythm 2.5’ x 2’ hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

detail REFLECT 4.9 urban rhythm 2.5’ x 2’ hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTA: prairie

November 16, 2023

Thrilled to get images of VISTA: prairie hanging in a pediatric lounge in a midwestern hospital.

The art consultant on this project provided a color palette for the piece. We worked back and forth to figure out how to incorporate more green into the foreground. Vertical glass stringer combined with painted topography in the foreground was approved by the client.

VISTA: prairie 5.5’x2’ hand cut glass + concrete + paint c Heather Hancock 2023 photo credit: TOC Artwork

detail | glass stringer and painted topography

detail VISTA: prairie 5.5’x2’ hand cut glass + concrete + paint c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTA: prairie 5.5’x2’ hand cut glass + concrete + paint c Heather Hancock 2023

new cityscape close to home: VISTA Chicago

November 08, 2023

VISTA: Chicago is installed in a downtown conference room. Here’s a quick overview of the progression from preliminary sketch to final pieces.

started from this drawing of Chi skyline.

inspo image. Chi skyline museum campus view

inspo image. had to double check that there was “green” in the view from museum campus. yep. trees…and grass.

VISTA: Chicago 3@4’x2.5’ hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

headed for install | NYC

November 07, 2023

October’s been busy busy. Catching up on pix. This new diptych is heading for install in NYC.

Reflect 4.9 a+b urban rhythm 2.5’x 2’ hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

detail Reflect 4.9 a+b urban rhythm 2.5’x 2’ hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2023

recent pix | REFLECT commission Cadence

October 27, 2023

Love getting to see pieces installed. This is a very special architect designed home. This piece was created specifically for this wall.

Reflect 4.6 Cadence 5’ x 2.5’ c Heather Hancock

multi panel pieces

October 24, 2023

Getting all set up to start in on multi-panel landscape project

Looking forward to working with color again. Blues and greens…with some accents in ambers. Love the vibrancy of glass in these hues.

A large lobby space with several architectural interruptions called for a color forward approach to graphic landscape imagery. Discrete vertically stacked panels will feature glass strips and shimmering iridescent circles, evoking sky and land. Continuity between panels is seen with an iconic fence and topography.

drawing | landscape c Heather Hancock 2021 14@ 15SF panels

And I’m excited about my recent re-working of my edged panel presentation to be a solid 1 3/16”alumium edging.

So sleek!

VISTA: prairie

September 18, 2023

Looking forward to getting final install pix from this recent project once it’s installed in a pediatric lounge in a Midwestern Hospital.

VISTA: prairie | 5.5’x2.5’ hand cut glass + paint + texture c Heather Hancock 2023

fall sketching | new directions with REFLECT series

September 13, 2023

I’ve got so many ideas swirling for my REFLECT (architectural abstractions) series. I’d love to bring in color, with either glass or paint. And, I’m thinking about smaller scale architectural forms. Which is how I ended up going back through my images from our extended stay in CDMX last spring. There was something so captivating about the attached 3-4 story multifamily buildings with simple facades that vary endlessly: small dimensional details and set backs, differences in detailing and grates, monochromatic through full color. Would love to explore a series of architectural structures with simple dimensional cues and then play with the vocabulary of windows and doors, grates and screens, textures and paint.

Some quick sketches of what I can imagine…

sketch | facade1 comp1 c Heather Hancock2023

I love the idea of precision cut / painted elements in interaction with concrete textures and surface irregularities. Some color could be paint and other cut in glass.

sketch | facade1 comp2 c Heather Hancock2023

sketch | facade3 comp1 c Heather Hancock2023

fall sketching | looking up

September 11, 2023

Continuing down the path of how to connect nature and architecture in REFLECT.

Took a bunch of looking up city and tree pix for inspo over the weekend. And here’s a next step in thinking about how this could work. The layered leaf concept would be a combination of cut glass and paint. Buildings would be reduced down to cut-able resolution in blue grays. Sky. Matte acrylic. Another approach to looking up, seeing the city.

sketch c Heather Hancock 2023

Meet the Maker | sept/oct luxe

September 05, 2023

So fun to see my art in the Scene section of luxe magazine.

I had a great conversation with writer Laura Hine back in early June. We talked a bit about how to describe my work. I use glass as an inlay within concrete textures, with light interacting differentially with the high gloss glass and matte textures. I think of my work as mixed media or dimensional.

Other things we talked about …

… Dimensional work. I love the object-ness of glass and how light animates that unique material for a dynamic experience.

… Graphic minimalism. evoking place using the least amount of information (ie clean line/crisp edges)

… Urban lens. After a number of years of focusing on cityscapes and architectural forms, I’m using my urban lens to create minimalist natural imagery: vines and foliage, landscapes and views.

Images came from a great photo shoot with Tony Favarula in late June.

fall sketching | REFLECT / low+wide angle looking up

September 05, 2023

I spent the better part of 2 years figuring out how to draw architectural forms with glass. I developed a consistent glass palette. I learned to cut in perspective. I gradually came to understand negative space and how the concrete texture could work as shadow. I got more confident in reducing complexity consistently to get to cut-able resolution of essential elements.

There’s something I’d love to see happen with this precision architectural cutting. Something that gets even closer to the immersive, embodied experience of being in the city. And something that brings nature back onto the canvas. Buildings are incredible looking up from the ground. So are trees. Light filtering through leaves. Could I bring the built world and natural world together in the REFLECT series? In order to do foliage, I’d probably need the whole thing in color.

mock up | looking up Chicago with foliage c Heather Hancock 2023

Although. Wait a minute. How about this. The buildings in grayscale and the foliage in intense color are incredibly beautiful too. And solves the problem of finding the right blues in glass. Interesting.

mock up | looking up Chicago with foliage c Heather Hancock 2023

encode collages | sketching

August 29, 2023

Circling back to ENCODE collages this morning to look again at how text and natural imagery can combine in a dimensional piece that points to the balance between the man-made and the natural in our urban lives.

concept sketch1 | ENCODE: CREATE c Heather Hancock 2023

oncept sketch2 | ENCODE: CREATE c Heather Hancock 2023

oncept sketch3 | ENCODE: CREATE c Heather Hancock 2023

oncept sketch4 | ENCODE: CREATE c Heather Hancock 2023

VISTA: prairie

August 17, 2023

I really enjoyed thinking about prairie imagery for a recent commission (pix soon) and now so many more ideas are swirling. Starting with some sketches with a simplified palette.

drawing VISTA: prairie comp1 concept3 c Heather Hancock 2023

drawing VISTA: prairie comp2 concept3 c Heather Hancock 2023

drawing VISTA: prairie comp3 concept3 c Heather Hancock 2023

And, then abstracting even more. mmmm. LOVE.

OK. When do I get to make these?!!

comp1 prairie concept4 c Heather Hancock 2023

comp2 prairie concept4 c Heather Hancock 2023

coming soon: VISTA prairie

August 03, 2023

I can’t wait to share my latest site-specific piece, combining shimmering cut glass inlay, matte concrete texture, and vibrant paint. A playful graphic abstraction of prairie grasses and wildflowers offers viewers a connection to nature with an imaginary expansive prairie landscape. More soon!