It has been a year since the pandemic began and like every other organization, the AGASC has had to curtail most activities except those online. Sadly, it has also taken a toll on our members. Many lives have been lost due to Covid-19 and the AGASC has not been spared. We would like to send our condolences to our glass family and friends who have lost someone this last year.
I am sorry to have to tell those who do not already know, we recently lost two of our members. Leslie Perlis passed away from Covid-19 on February 24 and Kris Egerstrom passed away suddenly on February 23. Leslie was a founding member, former president and a life-long supporter of the AGASC. She also received a lifetime achievement award from the AGASC in December 2012. Kris was a glassblower and a member since 2016. He also belonged to the Art Glass Guild. We are commemorating their AGASC lives here. They will be greatly missed.
With hope for better times ahead,
Jack Wade
President AGASC
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Leslie Perlis - Founder, Lifetime Member
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"Portraits and the human figure have played an important role throughout art history. I want to continue this tradition by adding my own contemporary art glass styling to this historic catalogue” — Leslie Perlis |
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Leslie with her friends of the Art Glass Association at the Mosaic Exhibit at California Center for the Arts |
Leslie gave a special tour of her exhibit for her friends with the
Art Glass Association of Southern Calfornia. A good time was had by all!
Photography by Ty Creighton
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Leslie's Installations from "Windows of Visions"
Leslie's work was so varied and amazing it is difficult to choose what to highlight. Here are just a few!
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"Line of Light" - Seacrest Chapel 16' X 9'
This design is an interpretation in glass of a story as told in the Kaballah, describing how the world was formed from a "line of light emanating from a dot". The Kaballah tells us that this dot contains vessels for the flow of spiritual energy.
Design and Photography by Leslie Perlis, Fabricated by Charlene Weidell.
Published by Carole and Randy Wardell "Windows of Vision" featuring Leslie Perlis Studio
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"Ocean of Discovery" (left) Entry doors to Sunset View Elementary School,
"Chromatic Current" 29" X 44" (center) Award winning exhibition piece, Fabricated by Heather Trimlett
The two panels on the (right) "Cross Currents" were designed for a domestic entry door. The door and frame were painted bright purple to match the glass. Fabricated by Leslie Perlis
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Leslie's work was so varied, colorful and fantastic!
She had a delightful sense of color and her own vivid style. Whether a story, a statement or her whimsical wearable art, her art was always colorful just like her bubbly personality.
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Mosaics with stories and images that represent her thoughts and ideas that she wanted to communicate. The triangle piece is named "Friend Pyramid",
18" X 18" X 1", 2006. This was exhibited at AGASC's Points of Convergence show. Her quote from Glass Art Magazine: "In the same way the food pyramid shows us the recommendation for proper nutrition, the Friend Pyramid reminds us that our true friends are really special."
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(L-R) " Astral Prism" Wall sculpture that hangs in a residential stair landing visible to various levels of the house.
"Twelve Tribes of Israel", Tifereth Israel Synagogue, San Diego 2006, twelve panels, each 18" X 18" , Metal Frame by Terry Douglas.
"Primary Fusion": For this screen she utilized fused glass areas, enamel painting, glass stringers, cane slices, dichroic glass, frits, and beads. Reed Wallrich curved the frame section using steam to form the arched frame from one continuous piece of wood, then dyed the wood to match the glass colors.
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Jewelry was another of her explorations that she found many ways to create unusual and colorful work. Necklaces, bracelets, and vests of glass murrines were designed in her whimsical patterns. The murrine were sliced after cooling and becoming a cane, then fused into a shape for designing her projects. |
Leslie Perlis - Thoughts from a few of her glass art friends...
LESLIE PERLIS served the AGASC in so many ways we need a book to tell this story. Her vibrant talent, ability to work hard and take on challenges, her willingness to promote the craft as it was evolving lead to her personal success as an artist, and to the success and strength of our non-profit: and to our intent to promote and educate others about the glass arts. Her story is told in Wardell publications, in vibrant and beautiful stained glass windows in synagogues, churches, public installations, and in private residences.
She was excited to experiment with glass fusing, using frit before it was available, working with friends to incorporate glass beads and twirled glass rods of Heather Trimlett’s making. Or...jewels, and rubber stamped glass paints on art she made for exhibitions in our shows, and published a book on making mosaics when she found she could use mosaics to make sculptures.She was an artist, a teacher, an author, a photographer, a leader, a friend and an anchor for the Art Glass Association of Southern California.
One of my favorite stories featured in Shawn Waggoner’s wonderful Glass Art Magazine article about Leslie in the November/December 2012 Issue, (and there are many!) is her personal description of a piece she made for our exhibit “Through the Looking Glass” in 2010.
She says “I had a blast re-reading the Louis Carroll book and got several ideas. I decided to continue my series of life-size glass mosaic figures and do Alice falling down the rabbit hole.” In a nod to the white rabbit, hidden in her back pocket is a heart shaped watch with the words “off with his head”. It took Perlis 160 hours over several months to complete the work. The title she gave the piece "Falling Daughter" was inspired by Perlis’ recent pilgrimage to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pennsylvania masterpiece, Falling Water.
Thank you Leslie for staying with us and bringing your work to our show every year. You will be surely be missed, and your stories will inspire us going forward.
- Marti Blair
I am at a loss for words as I process the loss of one the most talented artists and nicest people I have had the honor to ever know, Leslie Perlis. If you live in San Diego and been to the JCC, Miguel's, the Brigantine restaurants or countless Churches or Synagogues in the area you have had the opportunity to enjoy her art work. She was on the cover of my company's brochures for the last decade and had many books published with her artwork. She always had a smile, and new project in the works. Her house is like a museum of her work with a wispy, uplifting flow from the exterior façade to the tiniest niches in the interior. She loved to dance, laugh and socialize. She was very involved in the Southern California Art Glass Association where she consistently won awards for her work at their annual exhibition. As Randy Wardell, the publisher of many of her books put it in a text to me today, "Leslie was so creative so bubbly so friendly and so sweet. The world has lost one of the best."
Leslie had been reeling from complications resulting from COVID 19 she contracted in December. Her condition was up and down then declined sharply in the last couple of weeks. Her boyfriend of many years Mel, whom I had been in contact with over the last few weeks sent me this text: "Hello family. Sorry to report Leslie passed into the hands of God today at 3:40 to be with Eric and her parents. A totally pain-free transition surrounded by family and friends. Celebrate color in all parts of life."
Eric Pratt was her son who tragically lost his life a few years ago.
Leslie had to undergo a blood transfusion during her treatment. In honor of her I am donating blood tomorrow and encourage all who are able to donate too.
I am not certain what’s happening with arrangements but I know anytime the notion of donations came up she asked that money be donated to the Point Loma High School Drumline in honor of Eric Pratt. It is the group her son was very involved with. Here’s a link: http://www.plhsmusic.com/support.html - Steve Shupper
I cannot believe we have lost Leslie to the Pandemic. She has always been such a vital part of our Art Glass Family. She was a unique and powerful talent in the Art Glass World. She was instrumental in starting the Art Glass Association of Southern Calif. and I believe she served as president for something like 12 years. She was wonderful at publicity - getting our show going and publicizing the winners in all the Art Glass Magazines. She was responsible for bringing world renowned artists to San Diego for classes and seminars for the AGA. Her design and craftsmanship were superb. The components of her glass work: her color sense and manipulation of line were her signature. She developed the technique of firing frit to a consistancy of granulated sugar, culminating in 12 windows for theTemple Beth-Isreal in San Diego and went on to teach this technique all over. She will be remembered for her life sized glass mosaic self portraits and her series of swinging dancers on records. Her tremendous energy and positive spin on life will be sorely missed. - Cathy Coverley
I’ve only been a part of AGASC for a little while, but Leslie stood out as one of the most personable and friendly people. I sat the Member’s show with her early on, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her, and then was able to all the more enjoy her eclectic work in later years. - Paul Messink
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Kris Egerstrom - Member since 2016 |
Kris doing what he really loved blowing glass in the studio forming a beautiful piece. |
Kris at his booth at a patio sale sponsored by the Art Glass Guild. He has a large selection of finely crafted vases, paperweight hearts, colorful fish and perfume bottles. Ann Mitchell visiting with Kris. Ann met Kris through ceramics and he introduced her to glass. |
Kris worked at many different studios throughout his glass career including Mad Art Glass and crafted fine vases |
A nice selection of glass items made by Kris are available for sale at the Glass Art Guild in Spanish Village at Balboa Park. All sales will go to his estate. |
Kris Egerstrom - Thoughts from a few of his glass art friends and family...
Kris Egerstrom and I blew glass together for over twenty years, and I am so very sad to think we will never work on a piece together again. He had an amazing amount of energy and I think he was happiest when completely immersed in the process of glassblowing and focusing all that energy on creating. He was superbly skilled and so unbelievably fast at blowing glass. He reminded me of a whirling spark in motion that always tried to push the very limits of what he could make. Lately he had been making some extraordinarily beautiful work, swirling with color and sparkle. I wish I could tell him how much I appreciated him, and how beautiful his last pieces were. - Rina Fehrensen Mad Art Glass
Kristopher was a kind, creative, talented, unique, smart and a generous soul. When he blew glass, his passion came alive. He was fortunate enough to get to spend his life creating, and doing what he loved best: making beautiful art. Being accepted as a member of the San Diego Glass Guild was a true honor and one of the highlights of his life. He was extremely proud of being recognized as one of the talented guild artists members. Not only was he able to meet wonderful artists, establish friendships and make a living, he found great joy in knowing he belonged.
Kristopher looked forward to showcasing his art in Spanish Village. He loved blowing glass and was extremely innovative in his designs. He leaves behind a family and fiance who loves him and will never forget the signature beauty of Kris. - Kelli Dow
Kris was a kind, generous, caring, and gifted man who had an addiction and mental health problems that tragically took their toll on his life. He was loved and this has created a significant hole in his parents, Gary & Julie's lives, his sister's family, Kelly, Robert and Benjamin's lives, his fiancée, Yolonda Boston-Creigh's life, and mine. The family is planning on having a celebration of his life in a few months when it is safer for us to be all together. Kris was a prolific and talented glassblower. We need to give Kris his final peace from this world and say goodbye. We have all gone through so much this past year it will be good to be together in order to support one another and share stories and photos.
Kris touched the lives of so many with his artwork and in his journey looking for recovery. People that are struggling with the same problem of having no hope. I can think of no better way to celebrate his life than by starting a foundation and a GoFundMe site in his name. A legacy that will find better ways to get treatment for those that are suffering. We loved Kris as hard as we could, but Kris could never find the acceptance from life that he desperately craved. It doesn't have to be this way. - Rose Goehner
A Celebration of Life for Kris has been planned for April 18th, at 2:00 pm at the marina. You may contact Yolonda Boston-Creigh for more information by going to the bottom of Kris's GoFundMe page.
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