SUNDERLAND.- Artist and designer Joanne Mitchell recently completed her practice-based PhD at the University of Sunderland, where she developed a method to create complex air bubbles in glass using digital technology.

The resulting works, which employ air as a tool for expression, are currently showing in the ‘form & void’ exhibition at National Glass Centre until Sunday, November 22.

Joanne said: “I undertook the PhD at the University of Sunderland to change the direction of my work after 10 years as a self-employed glassmaker.

“I wanted to immerse myself in the academic environment of the PhD programme and the renowned facilities at the University of Sunderland to give me the creative focus and resources to develop a new body of artwork and thesis.”

During the final year of her programme Joanne applied to the Futures Fund to assist her in finding opportunities to further develop her professional career. Thanks to the Professional Development Scholarship she was able to take up the opportunity of Teaching Assistant to internationally renowned Glass Artist KeKe Cribbs at Pilchuck Glass Summer School, USA, in August 2014.

She added: “The Futures Fund allowed me to participate in a summer school of world-renown, meet and work with international artists as my peers, and promote my work to an international audience.

“I presented my work and current research to my peers at the Glass School which included world-renowned artists, glassmakers, academics, educators and board members.

“The talk was very well received and several members of the audience approached me to discuss my work, one specifically asking about opportunities for study on the University of Sunderland’s Glass and Ceramics Postgraduate Programme, building on the University’s growing reputation for international research in glass.”

Joanne’s research has developed pioneering kiln forming techniques to create forms and images trapped as air bubbles, suspended within a glass space.

In her recent sculptural work Joanne examines how immaterial elements can be exposed or preserved through glass, exploring the concept of making visible the intangible, using air as a metaphor for thought, memory and absence.