joline el-hai

JEH

The artists involved in The Doll Project are all from the Kansas City area - with the exception of Joline.

She had learned about the project on Facebook and immediately contacted me.

She wanted to be part of it.

When I looked at her website, I was surprised to see that I actually had one of her pieces! It was a nightlight my sister had given Eddie and me as a housewarming gift over ten years ago. I've always loved it.

I think it's amazing and wonderful how things/places/people always seem to kind of circle back. I was thrilled to make an exception for Joline and include her as our out of town "guest" artist. She did not disappoint. Her doll came back from Seattle as a lamp!

"Raised under the sun-soaked skies of Southern California I developed an enduring passion for light and vivid color. In 1975 I fell in love with the medium of glass -- its ability to convey emotion and touch the soul -- and began a 35-year journey of designing and fabricating glass panels.

My glass panels are sometimes naturally-lit as stained glass windows or electrically illuminated from behind as glowing tabletop, shelf or wall sculptures.


A gardener with deep roots in the earth, the drama and intimacy of the natural world often inform my designs. Through grainy reductive glass painting and incorporation of layered fused glass elements in my glass panels I celebrate life’s fertile mystery.

Old suitcases and odd antique wooden boxes are the frameworks for my glass panels in most of my current work. I cut holes in them, edge the openings with copper scraps, insert my fused and painted glass panels, and illuminate the pieces from the inside with low-wattage compact fluorescent lights. Most of them use no more electrical energy than a night light.

More and more I enjoy mixed-media combinations of all sorts, as long as they can be lit-up. For the Change the Truth project I sandwiched frosted mylar and theatrical light gels to fashion a dress for the doll with which I was entrusted. The dress is illuminated internally with a 4 watt compact fluorescent bulb.

I am fortunate and grateful to have lived my life as an artist and to have earned my livelihood that way for 25 years."

Treat yourself. Visit her website.