Cosmos+No.+1

Date: 1993
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/1999/1999.57.15_1a.jpg&max=460 width="279" height="269" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=38506"]] || Title: **Cosmos #1**

Name: **Roger V. Thomas** Born: Lynwood, California 1951

Medium: layered and fused glass and metal Dimensions: 1/2 x 19 in. (1.3 x 48.3 cm) diam. Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Carol and Don Wiiken

Accession: 1999.57.15 || Roger V Thomas is a man committed to creating fine art in a glass medium known as "vitreous mosaic" or fused glass paintings. Years of experimentation coupled with knowledge of glass chemistry have led Thomas to develop his own distinctive technique. His use of color and the translucent layers of his work make it both complex and appealing.
 * Biographical Information: **

"When I was 30 I was a wastrel, without dedication or direction. It was about that time that I came to understand that my life was about creating what in this society is known as art. That realization has enabled me to guide and direct my life since then. This is a comforting stability to me. It allows me to face all kinds of decisions with a reliable guidepost in front of me, and has given my life personal meaning. Art is the detritus of the creative act, and creating is a worthwhile goal for my life." – [Roger V Thomas]

"Each piece is a dialogue between myself and the medium. The conversation is about how simply something can be said; how many marks, what colors, what texture communicates the subject most clearly. How do you capture, translate, and communicate essence?" – [Roger V Thomas]

Unlike blown glass and more resembling ceramics, Thomas' work is prepared at room temperature and then fired and cooled, untouched, into a single piece of glass, to which additional layers may be added in subsequent firings. In the process of learning to paint with glass Thomas has developed a singular way of working that is based on two traditional glass techniques: pate du verre and mosaic glass.

In pate du verre, wet, finely ground colored powders are packed together in a mold. In mosaic work, glass or ceramic fragments are assembled to create a larger image. Similarly, Thomas creates his "vitreous mosaics" through a technique of arranging various types and forms of glass in layers to achieve a composition on a flat surface.

[|Artist Biography] SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **