Nadine Saylor

Bio

Nadine Saylor, Assistant Professor of Glass and Sculpture at University of Nebraska, Kearney is originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania.. She received her BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and her MFA in Glass from Alfred University in upstate New York. Since then, she has taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Harrisburg Area Community College in Pennsylvania, and at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In addition to teaching at the collegiate level, she has taught many workshops internationally including “Harbourfront Centre” in Toronto, “The Studio” at the Corning Museum of Glass and Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

Nadine has won several different awards for her work including “Glass Artist of the Year” in Cincinnati, and was a finalist for the “Niche Award” in Philadelphia. She has given demonstrations nationally and lectured internationally. In her work, she investigates the rise and fall of our country’s economy while preserving its history in the permanent material of glass. In her series entitled “Domestic Objects” her antique and ordinary objects become a recollection of the past, bringing to attention how much we have changed as human beings and how much technology has transformed our lives.

Artist statement

My work is an expression of childhood memories and how gender plays a part in our everyday lives. My mother was a housewife as were a lot of women back in that time. Sewing was something that the women used to do together in my family. It was what women did. It was the stereotypical position associated with the feminine sex throughout history. 

I most recently started a series of pincushions beginning with the familiar object of the Tomato and Strawberry Pincushion. For me, it symbolizes my time of learning how to sew with my grandmother. I wonder if this is as important in a current childhood experience. In researching the history, I understand more now why the tomato is our prominent recollection of a pincusion. The tomato was placed on the mantle to ward off evil spirits but in the winter. When tomatoes were out of season, they made them out of fabric and used it as a voodoo doll. 

By making these objects out of glass and larger than life, I am giving these vintage icons a new focus. My work becomes a nostalgic place for the viewer to interpret with his or her own recollections and memories from their own experiences.