Roots and Refractions
Martha Keane/ Whirleybird Glassworks
November 6, 2026 – January 2, 2027
Newport Visual Arts Center
COVAS Showcase
Featuring forest- and coastline-inspired fused glass.
November and December offer the perfect backdrop for this exhibition. As the days grow shorter and colder, viewers are naturally drawn inward, making it an ideal moment to encounter work that reminds them of warmth, light, and the beauty of the natural world. The reflective quality of fused glass, capturing and refracting light, feels especially resonant during the darker winter months, offering a sense of luminosity when the outside world offers little.
Opening Reception & Artist Talks:
Friday, November 6, 5-7pm
To help ensure an enjoyable experience for all, we kindly encourage guests to attend fragrance-free in support of those with allergies and sensitivities.
About the artist…
As a professional arborist I learned to truly see the natural world in all aspects—the architecture of a tree, the way a forest shifts through the seasons, the quiet details that often go unnoticed. That same attentiveness shapes my creative process with glass at Whirleybird Glassworks.
Drawing from the forests and coastlines of Oregon, I work primarily in fused glass, a medium I cam to in 2010 after nearly a decade in stained glass. Fused glass has a particular relationship with light—it moves and changes throughout the day, alive in a way that mirrors the landscapes inspiring it.
Creativity has always been part of how I engage with the world. For ten years I worked as a commercial beekeeper, where I also made handcrafted beeswax lotion bars and bee-themed fused glass. The impulse to make things has always been with me, whatever form it takes. I enjoy collaborating with other artist to create mixed media work that has been shown in local galleries and in a traveling show that has crisscrossed the U.S.
My best ideas tend to arrive when I’m not looking for them: on the beach or deep in the forest with my husband Justin and our mini Aussies Stella and Piper, caught off guard by the way the afternoon light brings out all the colors of the ocean, or how a shaft of un through a Douglas fir looks almost too beautiful to be real. That’s what my work is always chasing—the fleeting, luminous moment when nature stops you in your tracks.
Nature is endlessly generous with its beauty. I try to catch a little of it and hold it up to the light.
I am a member of the Pacific Northwest Glass Guild and SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates), Oregon Coast Council for the Arts and the Lincoln City Cultural Center. My studio, Whirleybird Glassworks is located in Lincoln City, Oregon.