Arts & Culture

Fort Worth artist bridges gap between childlike imagination and adult reality in new exhibition

By Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report

Published July 25, 2023 at 12:14 PM CDT

A woman stands outside a building holding a glass piece in her arm. — Tatara Siegel, a glassblowing artist, poses with a glass piece she made at SiNaCa Studios, 1013 W. Magnolia Ave. Siegel incorporated photographs from 2008 and glass works in her new exhibition at Gallery 440, 440 S. Main St.

A Fort Worth glass-blowing artist explored the concept of daydreaming as an adult in her new art exhibition.

The artist, Tatara Siegel, started the series before the COVID-19 pandemic when she found herself daydreaming more as it was a time when things were very challenging for her.

Siegel said kids usually daydream about “hybrid animals” and “flying around the clouds.”

“When adults daydream, they dream of how they can change their lives because they might not be content in the life that they’re living,” Siegel said.
“Into the Clouds with a Tether of Reality,” the exhibition, blended three-dimensional and two-dimensional art at Gallery 440, 440 S. Main St.

Art prints line a wall with hanging glass pieces on the right. — Siegel hung glass forms that resemble cumulus clouds next to two-dimensional prints. She hasn’t seen many artists combine two-dimensional and three-dimensional art in one exhibition, she said.

Glass art pieces hang on a wall. — The glass-blown shapes hang from the ceiling at Gallery 440 using copper wire. The cloud-like shapes further showcase the ideas of child-like imagination and reality. Siegel started analyzing her life choices and began blowing glass soon after the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition features prints of somber images she photographed in 2008 and cloud-like glass forms tethered by wire meant to symbolize the bridge between reality and imagination.

An art print of a mangled bicycle hangs on a wall. — A print hangs on the wall at Gallery 440. In one image, a man holds a Jack Daniels bottle in his waistband. In another, a bicycle with a bent wheel is captioned, “The Unable,” while her glass pieces hang on the walls next to the prints.

The images complement the glass pieces in the exhibition, she said.

“It’s all of these really interesting metaphors for how we as adults alleviate and how we process life in different ways,” Siegel said. “And, really thinking along the lines of how simple and great it is to be able to process like a child where you can just really fall into that cloud-like state.”

Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.