During this episode Chris chats with two artists working in very specialized mediums. Goldie Poblador is an interdisicplinary artist who has been working in glass most recently. Chris and Goldie chat about Goldie's interest in glass, and the ecofeminist themes of her work. Later in the episode Chris interviews book binder, book maker, and book tool maker Brien Biedler. We hope you enjoy listening along and learning about these two artists and their work in niche mediums.

Goldie Poblador is best known for her multi-sensory installations that merge glass sculpture, scent, video and performance.  

She specializes in glass flameworking, a technique primarily reserved for Western voices and which she aims to shift. Her work combines Filipino mythology with the 19th century tradition of sculpting life forms in glass as popularized by the Blaschkas.

She has been exhibited internationally at such institutions as Urban Glass, 601Artspace, the Yangon Secretariat Building Knockdown Center, Islip Art Museum, The RISD museum, Cemeti Art House, Singapore Art Museum, Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Cité Internationale des Arts, Fine Art Museum of Hanoi, Lopez Memorial Museum and Library, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, The National Museum of the Filipino People and The Cultural Center of the Philippines.

She has received a grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts, a President’s Scholarship from the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Philippine AIR Prize from Alliance Française de Manille. She has completed residencies at the Corning Museum of Glass, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Wassaic Project, The Hambidge Center, MASS MoCa, La Fragua and the Cité International des Arts.

She received her BFA in Studio Arts from the University of the Philippines in 2009. In 2015, she obtained her MFA in Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Brien Beidler is a bookbinder and toolmaker who explores the structure, aesthetics, and impact of pre-industrial bindings in a 21st century context. In Brien’s practice, bookbinding and toolmaking work in parallel to investigate the role books have played in the history of ideas and other facets of cultural history.

In his binding, Brien is deeply inspired by the processes of historic bookbinders and uses tools and techniques that replicate the structural and visual properties of the books they made.

In his toolmaking, Brien specializes in hand-engraved finishing tools and other decorative stamps for bookbinders, leatherworkers, and woodworkers. See a video of his process here.

He also teaches workshops in bookbinding, gold tooling with egg glair, and finishing tool making, and is on the board of Co-Directors for the Paper and Book Intensive.

Brien holds an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the College of Charleston, where he was first introduced to bookbinding in the library’s Special Collections. He was the Director of the Bindery and Conservation Lab at the Charleston Library Society from 2012-2016 before establishing his own practice.

Brien is currently based in Minneapolis, MN where he shares a studio with Wren, his curmudgeonly spaniel.