I follow the threads of my surroundings looking for my reflection within the material I have chosen to use. Searching for similarities between the two, I seek out the comfort where they coincide. I find myself forming objects that tell the story of my own creation, how I came to be who I am. I spend a lot of time being vulnerable to my environment, lingering over emotions and visuals that accompany the landscape and the people within it. I observe and assess, each image being like a breath and each idea like a touch. The idea’s physical manifestation often acts as a personal confessional, an outlet for exchange and communication.

Born in Illinois in 1975, Carmen Lozar uses glass as a means manifesting emotional perception in a physical form. During her undergraduate career at University of Illinois she interned at Bullseye Glass Factory in Portland, Oregon and attended Pilchuck Glass School as a Saxe award recipient and staff member. After completing her BFA she ventured to China, Indonesia, Thailand, and India to explore eastern traditional art. Upon her return she moved to the Southwest and opened a casting and flameworking facility in Tucson, Arizona.

Later, Carmen traveled to the Northwest to intern at Bullseye Glass Factory in Portland, Oregon and attended Pilchuck Glass School as a scholarship recipient and staff member. After completing her BFA she ventured to China, Indonesia, Thailand, and India to explore eastern traditional art. Upon her return she moved to the Southwest and opened a casting and flameworking facility in Tucson, Arizona. Her work from this period was exhibited in numerous shows, including SOFA, Chicago. Concurrently, she was granted the Saxe Award from Pilchuck Glass School; a full scholarship based on her merit as a teaching assistant.

In October of 2000, Carmen accepted a residency from Corning Museum of Glass and went on to be awarded a Master of Fine Arts from Alfred University in New York in 2003. Carmen shows regularly across the country and was a demonstrator at the International Flameworking Conference in Salem, New Jersey as well as The Glass Art Society Conference in St. Louis. She currently resides in Bloomington-Normal where she is faculty at Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Art has always played an essential role in my life. I grew up on the puppet shows my mother performed and the watched as my father created scale ship models and watercolored the ramshackle barns that surrounded our city. I have learned to find my reflection in the surroundings and to express my energy through my hands. I have found myself drawn to glass for the innate sense of motion it can bring to a work of art; While the intrinsic motion of most materials becomes paralyzed at the touch of the human hand, glass, as an amorphous solid, never relinquishes its visual motility. I have chosen to pursue a career in glass sculpture not only for my love of the material, but also because there is so much left to be explored within the field and the medium itself.