The product of ten weeks of intense fabrication, discovery and delight,
POETICAL MODESTY introduces my first in-depth exploration of
fused glass imagery. This glass image follows in the footsteps of
19th-century ambrotypes, wherein photographic emulsion was painted
onto glass and then exposed, generating a negative image that only became
readable when backed with a black material.

The viewer turns an elaborate crank, inspired by a 17th-century
Persian astrolabe, bringing the piece to life. Around the gossamer
image of a young masked Victorian woman with bound bouquet
a Jules Verne-esque machine clacks and whirls, raising and
lowering her into and out of an ornate velvet stage.

POETICAL MODESTY is an orphaned relative of the early optical
and parlor diversions found in homes before the advent of
electricity and radio. The complete lack of precise angles in the
structure toys with the symmetry of the design, and the result is a
rattling, slightly stuttering, utterly human device.

-- Keith Lo Bue, June 2010