Sehnsucht in Sapphire
2026
6″ x 6″
Stained glass paint, enamels, silver stain, glass
$200
The Subject
This portrait captures a soul at the crossroads, suspended between the yearning to find a voice and the paralyzing fear of failure. Her gaze remains an open question: is she running toward her destiny or fleeing from it? Whether caught in the breath of a song or the silence of a sigh, she represents the courage required to simply try. While this work reflects a personal self-portrait, it recognizes a universal threshold we all cross—capturing the collective human struggle to step out of the blue shadows and into our own light.
The Technique
This work recontextualizes a splash page from the 1940s comic book My Life, translating the bold energy of ink-and-paper into the permanent medium of kiln-fired glass. Hand-drawn trace lines provide the structural architecture, while airbrushed paint and enamels build the facial depth and saturated blue tones. The process concludes with silver stain, fused during a final heat cycle to create the metallic luster of her adornments.
Mary Jo Schave