Lauryl Sidwell

Bio

Lauryl Sidwell is a stained glass artist from Kansas City, Missouri. She didn’t find inspiration in the visual arts until early in 2020 when she was especially taken with some contemporary works of stained glass. Initially self-taught, she eventually traveled to attend an artists' workshop in the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the glass studio at Penland School of Craft, she experimented with new techniques to elevate her craft. The possibilities she saw in methods such as kiln-fire painting, sandblasting, and silk screening took Lauryl down a path to understanding what she could bring to the medium. 

She continues to forge this path, challenging herself to apply new techniques, taking inspiration from new styles, and experimenting with unique formal conceptions. This has brought her work to where it is today, and takes it onward to a new and exciting interest in glass blowing, which she is working at today alongside her work in stained glass.

Artist statement

Though I work in a traditional medium, I find that the old conventions don't limit me. My work begins with the intention of utilizing characteristics of that old world tradition to break through the socially held boundaries of past artistic and cultural heritage. Taking modern inspirations into and against medieval tradition, I work to create art that surprises, provokes, and challenges the limits and ideas of stained glass I hold.