In Curious Growths: New Work, Robin Cass presents an assortment of fleshy formations and unnatural growths in glass and metal. Cass’ current work consists of tangled clusters of fleshy formations that evoke botanical or zoological specimens. She is interested in ambiguity and contradiction, and wants these pieces to suggest familiar forms while remaining open to various associations. Her inspirations include the botanical photographs of Karl Blossfeldt, biological engravings of Ernst Haeckel, and glass scientific models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka.  She is fascinated by the human inclination to seek out and gather odd and novel objects for personal contemplation and public display; an urge exemplified by the "WunderKammer" or cabinets of curiosities of Renaissance Europe.  In these pieces, she essentially makes her own oddities and arranges them in compositions meant to elicit a sense of wonder and inquisitiveness. Robin Cass has been a faculty member in the Imaging Arts & Sciences Glass Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology since 1998. She also served on the board of directors of the international Glass Art Society for six years.  Cass earned her BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Alfred University. www.robincass.com

Intersection is an exhibition of work in glass and printmaking in which the interconnectedness of the creative process is realized. Stokes creates a fluid, vitreous transparency in her monoprints, composed of layers of floating “organisms” that directly relate to, and are inspired by, her similar studies in glass sculpture. Paula Stokes was born in Ireland and has lived in Seattle since 1993. She teaches at Pratt Fine Arts Center and is the Exhibition Program manager for the Pratt Gallery at Tashiro Kaplan. Stokes earned her BDes in Glass at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and did post baccalaureate studies in Printmaking at the University of Washington. www.paulastokes.com