Mark Angus’s stained glass pictures explore the artist’s dilemma
These stained glass pictures have a striking common denominator. Ladders. Well, it obviously doesn’t take an art critic to notice that, but what is it all about?! I invited Mark Angus to the art college where I teach glass, and during a lecture about his recent work, he told us about the significance of these ladders in his stained glass pictures. He explained that he was interested in the notion of eternal youth, like the characters in ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Peter Pan - those who tried to remain a child forever.
I’m not entirely convinced if I quite understood the concept, but Mark seemed to be saying that these characters were quite often creative types - often misunderstood - and whose feet floated some distance from the ground. Hovering between earth and heaven appeared to be their position in life – hence the ladders, which were a manifestation of the link between these spiritual and secular worlds.
Phew! Now I’ve explained the ladders as well as I’m able, I’d like to point out the fantastic spontaneity of Mark’s approach. He uses glass etching on handmade flashed glass – here it’s blue on an opal base – and flicked on hot wax for a resist. The glass painting is applied in a similarly free manner, splattered on with a stained glass painting brush. Down the left side is a strip of stained glass lead that divides the stained glass pictures by both a change of colour and treatment of form. This is another way Mark Angus emphasises the two different worlds his figures inhabit.
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