Victoria Scholes

My work is all about transformation. Have you ever tried to open your eyes underwater? Ever since I was small, I've found this an irresistible, magical and often painful pleasure. Everything is somehow the same, but magically and strangely different. It is something of this perspective that I seek in my work, exploring the places where the imagination can transform what we think we already know into something new and different. I believe that it is in these spaces that the seeds of change are sown, and new ways of thinking and being are opened up.

I came late to glass-making, by way of various occupations. I trained originally as a Pharmacist, and worked for a number of years in the pharmaceutical industry, before joining the Anglican Priesthood. A growing realisation that I wanted to spend my life doing what I wanted to do, not what I ought to do (a tendency that a friend calls "hardening of the oughteries") drew me to art and glass. My creative practice spans visual art and creative and critical writing. I have exhibited internationally and nationally, including at the prestigious British Glass Biennale in Stourbridge, and in Side by Side, a highly acclaimed exhibition organised in partnership with the Devon Guild...

BROADFIELD HOUSE GLASS MUSEUM, Compton Drive, Kingswinford, West Midlands, DY6 9NS. Exhibition of Glass Furniture, 21 August 2010 - 27 February 2011. www.glassmuseum.org.uk

'TEMPEST', A touring exhibition and web showcase of glass beads inspired by Shakespeare's play displaying work by some of the foremost glass and glass bead artists from around the world. See the fabulous website showing the beads and explaining their inspiration. www.tempestglassbeadexhibition.org. The next venue for the show (which will include work by a number of new makers) is Glasmuseum Immenhausen, from 4 Sept 2010 to 16 Jan 2011.

PLUMBLINE GALLERY, 2 Barnoon Hill, St. Ives, Cornwall, TR26 1AD. 10.30-5 Monday to Saturday. Contact 01736 797771. www.galleries.co.uk/g-sti.htm#69