Jay Gubitz is an American artist who has pioneered the art of Stained Glass Sculpture. While the art of Stained Glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

has been around for a while, Jay has taken the traditionally two-dimensional art form to three dimensions. He was awarded First Place in the Gallery of Excellence at the Glass Craft Expo for his "Scarlet Macaw" sculpture. He also won Glastar's 3-D stained glass competition for both his "Peacock" and "Screaming Eagle" sculptures.

Biography

Born in New York in 1929, Jay spent his early career as an artist in Marketing. After retiring in 1985, he began to learn the art of Stained Glass, thanks to the suggestion of his wife, Elaine.

After enrolling in a couple of introductory courses, he took that knowledge and continued to teach himself by trial and error. He started with traditional two-dimensional windows, but quickly started challenging himself with three-dimensional works.

Evolution of Stained Glass Sculpture

Getting his inspiration from nature, he set out to create three-dimensional birds. Jay went through 3 generational styles in coming to his final, and most realistic, style.
The first generation bird had a flat silhouette body, with a one-layer wing, curved slightly upward. Although this style had the general appearance of a bird, it was hardly lifelike.

The second generation was the square-bodied bird. It had two silhouettes of the body connected at the top and bottom with rectangles of glass, giving it a box-like effect. Although this style now had a three-dimensional body, the square edges didn't give the bird a fully lifelike appearance.

The third generation is the present one: the lifelike round-bodied birds (and animals). By making wood carvings of the birds' bodies, he was able to create the rounded patterns necessary for this style's realism and complexity.

Examples of Jay's Sculptures

Below are just a few examples of Jay's creations.

Scarlet Macaw


Awarded First Place in the Gallery of Excellence at the Glass Craft Expo, this Scarlet Macaw, has a 32" wingspan, is 29 inches from head to tail, and sits on a 53"-tall brass floor perch.

Peacock


This award-winning sculpture, Best of the Year 2000 in 3-D in Glastar's competition, has a fan-spread of forty-eight inches, is made of nearly 1,300 pieces of iridized glass, and weighs 27 pounds. The fan has 101 "eyes."

Screaming Eagle


The Screaming Eagle has a 56" swept-back wingspan, red glass eyes, open beak, and metal talons. It is made of 814 pieces of textured black glass, with the wings having five layers of "feathers." It is another award-winner in Glastar's competition, 3-D category in the year 2000.

Zebra


This life-sized, 3-dimensional sculpture is made from more than 1,200 pieces of black and white iridized glass, and weighs only 14 pounds because it is hollow inside.