Donald Robertson, Studio Glass Artist: Material Metaphors
- Ornamentum
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
by Bruno Andrus
"Glass is as thought, infinitely mutable. Light, energy, matter." — Donald Robertson
Donald Robertson, internationally recognized for his creativity and expertise in sculptural cast glass, is one of the most important and influential figures in Canadian studio glass.(1)
At the core of his artistic practice lies the use of thermal energy to transform minerals into objects of beauty and meaning. His foundational work in ceramics and metal casting led him to discover glass, which became his preferred medium for material, technical, and symbolic reasons. Robertson draws metaphorical inspiration from classical antiquity, recontextualizing and merging ancient narratives with the present. As he explains: “My sculptural practice is informed by history, science, mythology and current events. This creative perspective is synthesized within our contemporary context, and the works created add new layers of meaning and interpretation to their original references.”(2)
Left to right: Donald Robertson, Coriolis V, 2021, cast pâte de verre, cut and polished, two lenses, 52 x 62 x 18cm. Photo: S. Edgerley // Donald Robertson, Green/Grey Wrapped Vessel, 2002, lost wax cast glass, cut and polished, 48 x 20 x 20cm. Photo: Eva Seidner
His art explores the fundamental dynamics of nature and culture, expressed through a distinctive allegorical language comprising a rich vocabulary of materials, techniques, forms, colours, textures, and iconography. The material’s qualities and physical properties are fundamental to the artwork's aesthetic and its message. His constantly evolving themes and motifs interconnect and converge in different series.
Robertson's methodology is inherently dialectical. In his sculptures, he uses glass—a material defined by its contradictory properties of solid/liquid, durable/fragile, visible/invisible—to explore the spaces where opposites meet. This is the essence of his practice: seeking connections and meeting points that link and mediate human experiences across time and space.
This material focus extends to the symbolic role of glass. In semiotic terms, Robertson’s work treats glass as both a symbol, a conventional sign representing an abstraction, and an icon, a sign that directly represents the thing it signifies. Ultimately, his material-based art practice seems rooted in Marshall McLuhan’s idea that “the medium is the message.”
Material and Process: Pâte de Verre
The notion of time is omnipresent throughout the artist’s work. Robertson's creative process is a long-term endeavour, with some sculptures requiring months or even years to finalize. He works slowly, carefully choosing his glass and firing schedule according to the project.
Robertson's preferred technique is pâte de verre (glass paste), an ancient process originating in Mesopotamia and reintroduced in French Art Nouveau. The process is both additive and subtractive. It begins with the lost-wax method of casting, which involves making a wax model around which a mold is made. The wax is then burned out to create a cavity. Crushed glass is placed into this void and heated in the kiln to nearly 1,000∘C, where it liquefies and flows into the mold. A necessary cooling period, called annealing, takes several days to slowly solidify the glass and avoid internal stress.
Once the object is cast, the subtraction phase begins. The sculptor meticulously cuts, grinds, and polishes its surfaces to enhance brilliance, reflectivity, or translucency. Polishing allows light to penetrate the material, revealing its internal space. Robertson observes, “Light is an essential visual element in my work; it defines form and intent. Glass,” he goes on to say, “is a mystical material in its ability to simultaneously retain one form while revealing another when modulated by reflected and transmitted light. My sculptures are activated by natural light, becoming present or receding like ideas themselves.”
The vessels Infinity II (1986) and Green Gray Wrapped Vessel (2002) show the pâte de verre technique. On the vessel form, the artist states: “They are a metaphor for humanity.” Robertson has made vessels for forty years, continually refining his forming methods. His purpose is “to create a dialogue between the exterior and interior negative spaces as seen through the glass,” noting that,
Looking through the vessel wall is like our perception of the environment filtered through our senses. The exterior represents the world around us, the glass vessel our senses, the interior is our essential self. The reason for the interior being open is that I believe there is no actual separation between us and our universe, only a perceived one.
Spirals and Vortexes
The location of Robertson’s studio in the Laurentian region of Québec provides him with not only peace and time to work but also a constant source of inspiration. From his studio he can observe the interconnected dynamism of earth, water, wind, light, fire, the sun, moon, and stars. Through his artistic research, Robertson seeks to reveal both the fundamental structures of the universe and the principles behind their movement. Many of his works, such as Coriolis V (2021) and Continuum (2022), feature the motif of the spiral, vortex, whirlwind or maelstrom. According to Robertson, "the spiral form symbolizes the transformation of energy and matter, the infinite with no beginning or end." From the microcosm to the macrocosm, it is a manifestation of the universe's ordered chaos, "a symbol of time and change, of nature's cycles, the spiral extends outward and contracts inward, connecting the past, present, and future."
Water
In both physical and philosophical terms, the existence of movement, change, and transformation in the universe implies the existence of time, which Robertson explores through the dynamism of wind, water, and waves. Ripple (2009) represents water and movement as well as the ripple effect: "Ripples in time, [show] the way a small action can spread out far beyond its source or intention. The ripples echo and reveal, moving out from the event horizon. Undulating reflections on water reveal the memory of an action taken, the way water remembers and transmits the memory of an event.”
Left to right: Donald Robertson, Sisyphus, 2014, lost wax cast and bronze and copper, 93 x 150 x 93cm. Photo: M. Dubreuil // Donald Robertson, Helios, 2023, lost wax cast crystal, cut and polished, steel, 33 x 32 x 18.5cm. Photo: S. Edgerley
Carapace Series
The Carapace series is a visual allegory of time and change, in which the spiral motif represents the cycles of nature that return but never to quite the same place. In Large Carapace II (2005) for example, the exterior shell of the form expands while the interior space contracts, creating a connection between the past, present, and future. Through his research, Robertson learned about the Fibonacci Sequence, a structural mathematical pattern found in nature. He explains: "The Carapaces are the result of an interesting exploration into cutting up my wax vessels shapes using the Fibonacci sequence and then reassembling them. Much to my surprise this revealed a tendency to create shell shapes, which are probably our ancestors’ original containers, the primal vessel.” In works like Blue Spira (2002), the Spiral and Vortex themes merge with that of Vessels.
Warriors Series
In 1988, Robertson initiated his best-known body of work, the cast glass helmets of the Warriors series. Sculptures such as Helios (2023) contrast the helmet’s formal and material beauty with its function as armament. According to the artist,
The Warriors series combines the archaic form of the Greek Corinthian helmet with the fragility and translucency of glass to articulate the paradox of man's nature to place his greatest efforts of science and creativity into devices of war and destruction. I created them in response to events occurring in our contemporary world. Though the bronze helmets were made to protect, the ones I cast are relatively fragile. This contradiction suggests the folly of using the finest fruits of civilization to manufacture things that are defensive or aggressive as a solution to human conflict.
Time
The themes of war and time converge in Sisyphus (2014), a piece created during the Russian invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and inspired by George Santayana’s remark, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This cast bronze sculpture expresses the futility of waging war. Robertson named the work after the tragic figure of Sisyphus, who the Greek gods compelled to ceaselessly push a rock up a mountain only to have it fall back under its own weight. Robertson states, “The physical configuration of the sculpture assures the wheel is fated to eternally roll in the same trajectory.” This movement is, he notes, “Revolution without evolution, nothing is accomplished by its action.” The wheel’s design references an ancient Egyptian chariot, but the rim’s teeth are made up of current-day soldiers who Robertson describes as “cogs in a machine,” who are “both aggressor and victim, continually replaced as they wear out.”
As the first synthetic material created by human activity, glass is an indicator of a civilization’s technological, societal, cultural, and artistic development. From this perspective glass, like war, is a universal constant uniting humanity across time and space. Nevertheless, as Donald Robertson’s art makes crystal clear, we can find solace, wonder and amazement in beauty. As Friedrich Nietzsche’s aphorism goes: "We have art in order not to die of the truth."
The theme of time permeates his production, confronting scientifically measured temporalities (cosmological, geological, historical) to that of the fleeting moments of lifetime. Robertson’s Pendulum (Industrial Time) (2010) is a more personal reflection on the time spent working on his art. He made it of pre-existing scraps of metal gathered over his career from different sculptural projects, representing an accumulation of time and the energy of creation. Each metal element is an offcut from the artist's working life, invoking a memory of that specific experience. By welding them together, he created continuity with the past: “This piece is a metaphor for this strength that comes from many small things brought together into a whole.” He draws attention to the work’s smooth, transparent interior as a contrast to its eroded exterior and says, “The pendulum moves but stops unless there is actual applied physical effort. This symbolizes the ongoing energy that is required to create works. Glass is at the heart of this personal reflection. It is representative of my sculptural material of choice for the past 25 years.”
The scientific revolution did not oust mythological thinking from the human mind; it generated new collective narratives we adhere to, consciously or not. The prevailing contemporary myth is that of progress—the assumption that advanced modes of technology will lead to a more humane society. Progress conceptualizes time as linear, a model where time moves irreversibly from the primitive to the civilised.
Cyclical time, on the other hand, conceives of time as repeating cycles and emphasizes continuity and natural rhythms. The concept of the eternal return, first associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles and later adopted by Nietzsche, proclaims that time repeats itself in an infinite loop.
Connecting and mediating these contrasting systemic perspectives, Robertson conceives of time as neither a straight line nor a circle but as a spiral: “I use the spiral in my work because the loop never closes. It only appears to, depending on how you look at it. Things repeat but never in the same way. Space is allowed for chaos.”
Donald Robertson’s 2026 retrospective exhibition, Myth, Metaphor and Pâte de Verre–A Retrospective at Galerie Espace VERRE in Montreal will offer the occasion to celebrate his work, art, and life, along with his ongoing contribution to the field of international studio glass.
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Bruno Andrus, PhD, is a professional glassblower, art historian, and independent researcher. He graduated from Espace VERRE in Montreal in 1997 and has taught there since 2001. His work is primarily handmade utilitarian objects. He has been the recipient of several awards and grants; his work is exhibited internationally and is part of museum collections.
This article appears in the Fall/Winter 2025 issue of Ornamentum magazine. To purchase the issue or subscribe, head to our store.
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Endnotes
Donald Robertson is also a respected teacher at Espace VERRE since its opening in 1988. The Quebec Government recognized his contributions as an educator in 2025 by awarding him the prestigious Membre de l’Ordre de l’excellence en éducation du Québec.
Unless otherwise specified, all quotations are by Donald Robertson.
Sources: Donald Robertson archives and conversations with the author (2025).