Started working in glass in the 1970s.
Started Blowing glass at SFSU in the Spring of 1979. “Michael Schmidt and Carl taught me how to not drip molten glass on my feet.” John Leighton was the instructor.
Lynne-Rachel Altman is best known for her sculpture and site specific public art. A San Francisco Bay Area native, Altman has mastery over a variety of durable and temporal media including soap, chocolate, paper, sound, concrete, light, and 30 years of experience working with glass. She has a background in installation, design, and considers herself a 709.2 artist, the Dewey Decimal classification for “artists not limited to or chiefly identified with a specific form . ..”
“Empty Head #2 (Rabbi)”
Lynne-Rachel Altman
2006
Kiln fired, crushed (sintered) glass
7x8x9″
“That which is held inside”
Lynne-Rachel Altman
2000
Cast glass, goldleaf, plaster, graphite drawing
I started blowing glass in 1979 at San Francisco State with John Leighton and Michel Schmidt, and assisted and apprenticed with a number of Bay Area artists including Roger Nachman, Sean Weisbach, John Lewis, Estaban Prieto, and David Garcia. My residencies have included a fellowhsip at the Creative Glass Center of America, a Pilchuck Glass School EAIR, an Arad (Israel) Arts Project residency and a residency at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
I worked as a designer at Pilgrim Glass in Ceredo, West Virginia, under the direction of Kelsey Murphy. I apprenticed with Eva Englund in Nybro, Sweden, where I received training in graal from English glass engraver John Ford and created production and unique work for the Pukesberg Glasbruk (factory).
I studied with Clifford Rainey, Bella Feldman, and Lewis DeSoto at CCAC, and received an MFA in Sculpture and Glass (with Distinction) in 1994. I worked with Public Glass in San Francisco to help start the kiln casting program, and taught open face, lost wax and pate de verre glass casting and cold working from 1998-2001.
My public art commissions include cast cement and brick pavers for the City of Berkeley, step inserts for the Santa Clara Central Park Public Library, an interactive musical attraction at Children’s Fairyland, and murals in Oakland and Berkeley. Other projects have included residential work and street art, including the re-purposing of decapitated parking meters into sculptural bike locks.
In addition to my background in glass, I use a variety of durable and temporal media including soap, chocolate, sugar, paper, sound, concrete, and light, and I consider myself a 709.2 artist, the Dewey Decimal classification for “artists not limited to or chiefly identified with a specific form.”