The DNA of Neon Art
Every family has a story. With father-daughter duo Jacob Fishman and Zoelle Nagib, get to know the color stories and family histories associated with traditional neon glass techniques. We will explore traditional neon bending, touching on lettering and skeleton frames, and focus on the use of color to tell your own stories. In this workshop, students will utilize neon as a sculptural medium with color as the jumping off point. We will explore the available color palette, how different glass colors work in the flame, and, once lit, how the colors interact and speak to the intent of the artwork. Jacob will bring his technical engineering background, and Zoelle will bring her light-as-aesthetic sensibilities to push students' neon skills past the basics and into their truest artistic expression. Open to all levels, this class will center on light as the medium through which we observe and feel color families.
Jacob Fishman was born in Chicago and developed a childhood fascination with glass and light. After earning a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona his interest in neon became his focus. Though the trade was still highly guarded in the 1970’s, he doggedly sought out a mentor, and with hard work he quickly became a proficient glass bender and a highly sought-after bender and teacher. Now in his fifth decade of working in neon, Jacob’s main focus is fabricating and preserving artworks for museums and private collectors around the world.
Zoelle Nagib has over 20 years of glass experience, as well as a BFA in Photographic Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her current artwork explores themes of queerness, motherhood and memory. She lives in Chicago and is the Director of Lightwriters Neon where she is a neon fabricator and educator.
