Modern Venus
blown glass, 9″ H x 4″ W x 4.25″ D
I have been blowing glass since I was 14 and worked weekends as an assistant through high school. Modern Venus was created to be part of a multimedia exhibition on femininity in 2017. It was inspired by Venus of Willendorf, a piece art historians confidently posit was a goddess, symbol of fertility, or aphrodisiac for men. I am intrigued by the crudely-created, rotund figure and how confident experts are that she was considered sexy. Modern Venus is an abstract representation of a woman’s figure forged in the fire from molten glass. It was created to be misshapen, pocked, and void of facial features, breasts, or genitalia—yet still beautiful, elegant, and feminine.
Lucy Stefanko 