A few months ago, Newtown Cultural Arts Commission launched a new gallery at Newtown Senior Center. This gallery is focused on spotlighting Newtown residents, specifically seniors, and their many talents and works of art.

On display now through April is Linda Parsloe, a Newtown resident of 40 years who has found herself falling in love with fused glass. Fused glass is an art form that has “replaced” stained glass in a way.

“Then Bullseye, who’s the producer of all the glass we use … in 1964 came up with this whole phenomenon of making glass for people to fuse in kilns because before that was just only stained glass,” Parsloe said.

Parsloe started working with glass about two and a half years ago and has since gone “full speed ahead” on her journey. She took a class at Brookfield Craft Center as she was winding down her professional career on fused glass and was “hooked.” She said she takes every class she can find to keep learning and experimenting with this medium.

“It just bit me like a … some sort of disease. It just got into my blood and I said, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to learn everything.’ And to learn everything about fused glass is almost impossible cause there’s always something new every day,” Parsloe said of her work.

Parsloe has been experimenting with fused glass every day since she started, with her studio packed full of fiber paper, frits of all kinds, stringers, and, of course, lots and lots of glass. When she first started fused glass art, she made ornaments. Then she expanded a little more into jewelry pieces. Then she expanded even more, creating 3D flowers, and then expanded more into making garden trellises, plates, and some bobble head pieces.

When asked what her inspiration was, Parsloe told The Newtown Bee that “the fan talks to me,” with a point to the fan in her studio and a good laugh.

“I was a set designer in New York, and I did off-Broadway and I assisted for on-Broadway shows. I did that for years and I transferred to film, and then I did film for several years,” Parsloe said. She added that at one point, she was the top person for production design, which was a “very scary job” because she was supervising more than 60 people. Parsloe then gave birth to her daughter at 40, which pushed her into retirement. After raising her daughter for ten years, she started working in graphic design and packaging. As mentioned above, while she was sunsetting her graphic design business, she took a class on glass fusion.

“I’ve been all over the world,” Parsloe continued, explaining her inspiration, “I hitchhiked [in] Europe for a year, and, you know, I’ve just seen a lot of designs and studied art history and all that, so I have a feel for art and architecture. I go back on that, and a lot of inspiration comes out of the glass.”

Parsloe explained a little bit of her process. Sometimes she sees characters within glass, like sheep, but other times she just puts frit, or ground up glass, right onto the shelf of her kiln. The kiln takes about 11 hours to fire from start to finish, so a lot of the time, Parsloe does not even know what the end result will be. She sometimes uses a microwave to heat up glass as well — that process takes 18 minutes compared to the hours-long firing time required of the kiln.

Parsloe has around 30-40 pieces on display at Newtown Senior Center. She said she feels like she just wants “to go to Disneyland.” Parsloe is beyond excited to be the featured artist on display.

“It’s quite an honor,” Parsloe said. “It’s nice to have residents, especially at my age, see what I do.”

The artist shared more, saying that “art is so important to a person’s brain. Without art, we’d all be little computers walking around.” She encouraged readers to learn about art “any way you can,” and to take classes if they are interesting.

“I love experimenting,” Parsloe said, “and I think it’d be fun for people to see that, ‘Hey, you don’t have to be a trained artist to work with this medium,’ because it’s fun! It’s just so much fun! And every time I put something in there, I have no idea what’s going to come out. It’s working in the unknown.”

Newtown Cultural Arts Commission member Sharman Wheatley coordinates the artist displays at Newtown Senior Center. Wheatley shared that she asked the arts commission if members had any recommendations and was given a list of five or six names. She looked up each name and found Parsloe’s work online. Parsloe sells her handmade fused glass artwork online through Etsy. The name of her shop is ArtistryInFusedGlass.

“As we have had primarily two-dimensional artists, I thought a glass fusion artist would be a nice change and would fit into the showcase unlike some other sculptural work,” Wheatley said. “Linda’s work is phenomenal and she is a dedicated glass fusion artist. As in any kiln work using glass, whether in ceramic glazing or copper enameling, there is craftsmanship and the necessity of understanding the temperature ranges to create successful pieces.”

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.