A shiny new exhibit of handmade glass objects in the Saddleback College library speaks volumes about the creativity of its Emeritus Division glass art students.
The show was developed by art instructor Brian Canfield, who teaches Emeritus stained and fused glass classes in the Clubhouse 4 studio in Laguna Woods Village. The exhibit includes 55 pieces from 35 artists, many of whom are Village residents enrolled in the Emeritus classes.
“The exhibit was planned a year ago, and students in the spring, summer and fall 2025 classes have been making work to put in it,” Canfield said.
After admiring an underwater scene on a poster in the glass studio, Canfield came up with the idea of “The Estuary” for the main wall of the exhibit.
An estuary, where salt and fresh waters mingle and coalesce, offered a metaphor for the diversity and creativity of his students, he said.
The wall installation offers an underwater scene, brimming with fish, coral, anemone and other denizens of the deep. All were created in glass by Emeritus students. Other work representing water creatures is displayed in cases spread among the bookshelves and on several adjoining walls.
“These classes are incredibly unique, the unicorns of education, as they are offered free and continuously from semester to semester,” Canfield said. “Not many classes are like this.”
Canfield has designs on mounting similar glass exhibits in other Saddleback campus buildings and local art galleries.
“I’m trying to get the students’ work out there to give them a feeling of professional pride,” he said. “Many of them have confidence issues, and seeing their work displayed helps them see the quality in it.”
Village resident Cheryl Garcia has been fashioning glass items for the past four years, learning all that she knows through the Emeritus program.
“While I like all aspects of glass work, I prefer fused glass work, especially painting on glass,” said Garcia, who has become the studio supervisor for the night-time advanced glass class at Clubhouse 4. Fused glass involves heating the work in a kiln so that pieces adhere and melt together.
Garcia was inspired by the estuary theme to create a rainbow trout for the exhibit.
Village resident Diana Sherrod, a glass artist who attends the evening class, has worked in glass for many years, often creating mosaics with small glass pieces. She enjoys both mosaic and fused glass work equally.
Mosaics go together more quickly but require an attention to detail that fused glass does not, she said.
“Each has its own qualities,” said Sherrod, who has specialized in glass lanterns in recent months and sells them at Village bazaars, garden shows and the Bonanza Arts and Crafts Fair. She has contributed one of her lanterns for the exhibit.
Village resident Marty Rexinger liked the nautical theme of the exhibit and offered an ocean scene featuring sailboats. She finds that the medium of fused glass suits her well.
“I have no desire to solder,” she said with a laugh, referring to the process of connecting glass pieces together in the stained glass process.
Resident Valerie Fields contributed a dolphin lantern and a stained glass turtle to the exhibit because she loves both the ocean and turtles, she said.
“I like the way the colors shine through the stained glass but find fused glass more forgiving and creative,” she added.
Resident Claudia Callis is a relative newcomer to the glass medium, having created pieces for the past three years. She is also a ceramic artist and has fashioned in clay some of the molds in which she fuses her glass creations,
She prefers the art of stained glass because of the way the light shines through the finished art work but often integrates pieces of fused glass into her stained glass projects.
“I found the theme of underwater creatures perfect since I am always doodling them,” she said.
Village glass artist Amy Hyman has taught mosaic work through the newly established Village Glass Club, which offers a number of classes in fundamental skills to its members
She did glass work in college and took it up again a few years ago in the Village studio.
“The mosaic medium is my friend because it is easier on my hands,” Hyman said.
She loves wildlife and often strolls along Aliso Creek.
“I’m amused by the ducks searching for fish food with their butts sticking up,” she said, so she created a project showing that very fowl behavior.
“I am obsessed by the refraction of the light that you get with glass,” said Hyman, whose latest projects involve combining polished rocks with glass.
The Saddleback College exhibit will remain on display through Dec. 3 on floor 3 of the campus library. Parking is available in nearby lots 7 and 9 at $1 an hour for a permit dispensed by machine.