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 (4 items)

Sigmund Abeles, Untitled, n.d., etching, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1968.109.2
Untitled
Daten.d.
etching
Not on view
Sigmund Abeles, Self-Portrait with Saddles, 1972, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Frederick P. Nause and Rebecca Nause, 1973.176.2
Self-Portrait with Saddles
Date1972
lithograph on paper
Not on view
Sigmund Abeles, Saddle/Soap, 1972, lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Frederick P. Nause and Rebecca Nause, 1973.176.1
Saddle/​Soap
Date1972
lithograph on paper
Not on view