Artist

Mary Shaffer

born Walterboro, SC 1943
Born
Walterboro, South Carolina, United States
Active in
  • Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Biography

Mary Shaffer began her career as a painter, an ambition she’d had since the age of nine. A busy job and two young children prevented her from painting very often, however, and she spent several years thinking about what she wanted to do and jotting down her ideas. Her work in glass began in the early 1970s when she developed the technique of midair slumping. This involves placing sheets of plate glass on a structural form in a kiln, until the heat causes the glass to bend and sag. Shaffer’s powerful sculptures combine twisted wire or rigid blocks of metal with flowing layers of clear glass.

Works by this artist (6 items)

Benjamin Trott, John Cleves Short, 19th century, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Elizabeth Spencer, 1999.27.48
John Cleves Short
Date19th century
watercolor on ivory
Not on view
Benjamin Trott, Anne Hume Shippen, ca. 1796, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Natalie Brooks Sears Shippen and William Brush Shippen, 1999.87.1
Anne Hume Shippen
Dateca. 1796
watercolor on ivory
Not on view
Benjamin Trott, Jane Stone, ca. 1805, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1934.11.1
Jane Stone
Dateca. 1805
watercolor on ivory
Not on view
Benjamin Trott, Portrait of a Gentleman with Initials J. B., ca. 1795, watercolor on ivory, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 1954.6.4
Portrait of a Gentleman with Initials J. B.
Dateca. 1795
watercolor on ivory
Not on view