After training at Olivier de Serres and with other glass artists around France, such as the Ateliers Saint Didier and Saint Georges, Marie Grillo set up her workshop “La couleur du verre” (The color of glass) in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. She designs and manufactures stained glass and collaborates with interior designers.
The Par Excellence team stopped by her workshop to talk with her about her relationship with this art.
When Marie Grillo began her studies as a craftsman, she chose this discipline because of the similarities with her classical dancer education, in the search for the perfect gesture and in the relationship with light. “Like the dancer on stage, the stained glass window needs light to exist”, she explains.
Marie Grillo speaks passionately about the nobility of handmade glass: she believes that working with this material is getting closer to the past, creating a relation with time which contrasts with the fast-paced nature of our current society.
Working this art requires calmness, concentration and a certain precision that puts her into a deep meditation.
“The creation of a stained glass window is complex, because you have to take into account the subtle play of the light that it reflects, and that varies according to the glasses, its colors, its relief or its nature, whether painted, translucent or sandblasted. This interplay also changes depending on the type of light the glass reflects: direct, grazing or artificial, and all of which varies over the course of a day,” she explains.
Creating a stained glass window is about creating a work taking all of these elements into account.
Marie Grillo’s creations respond to the place, and the given function of the stained glass. The best-known application is window ornamentation or the window coverings, that illustrate the nobility of a place. But it is also used to hide or separate parts of a room, like a veil that lets light through.
For example, she has done it for a restaurant to separate the bar from the dining area. In a more unusual way, it can be found as a decorative element for furniture.
Marie Grillo particularly likes creations that offer a large surface of expression, which she intends to develop in her new workshop.
Follow Marie Grillo at @lacouleurduverre. For any information on her artworks, reach out at contact@lacouleurduverre.com