Marc Petrovic's 'Find and Seek' series at Madison Gallery, La Jolla, CA

by Cathy Breslaw

'Faith'  14" x 4"  glass, air

Marc Petrovic is a hot glass sculptor whose work at its core is driven by ideas. His current series of works are called “Find and Seek”. Air bubbles in the shape of letters trapped inside glass spheres spell out hidden words. Peering through clear highly crafted tall glass bottles, the viewer takes on the role of ‘finder and seeker’, literally reading into the piece.  Each bottle work includes several clear glass spheres that together form a word. It is the romantic notion of a ‘message in a bottle’ that draws us in to an otherwise straightforward pristine and simply designed hand crafted glass bottle. It is often the colorful transparencies and sometimes organically formed glass that we think of as ‘art glass’ – but in Petrovic’swork, he has provided us with a timeless quiet elegance and meaning -  having created glass in the form of a familiar object – the bottle.  Hand cut brass stamps are created to embed letters inside of individual small clear glass spheres during the painstaking craftsmanship of these works. The words formed and ultimately placed within the bottles are messages like ship, hope, courage, faith and love –things that bear universal meaning and value. There is an additional large wall work that is Petrovic’s version of the word search game. A large grid of the small clear spheres with letters embedded challenge the viewer to locate words. His accompanying wall information gives us the clues – words Petrovic has carefully chosen for us to find. As he states in comments about his work “ (the works) simply serve as a way to contain and continue a dialogue”.