College of Ceramics at Alfred, one of
the best art schools in the country, on the
basis of her academic and extracurricular
record. Her portfolio consisted of seventh-
grade industrial art projects and photo-
graphs developed in the darkroom she
built in her house. “Nobody with my back-
ground had ever applied to the school,”
she remembers.
Her background wasn’t such an asset,
though, as she began to grapple with the
nitty-gritty demands of art school. “My
peers were the very best artists from their
schools, and I didn’t even know the basic
terminology,” she recalls. She remembers
panicking at an assignment to draw “nega-
tive space” between two pieces of paper;
she had to ask other students what the term
meant. Stress almost derailed her freshman
year. Her weight dropped to 87 pounds, and
she developed a bleeding ulcer and severe
jaw tension. As one way to cope with the
pressure, she followed the Grateful Dead,
as she had in high school, enlisting other
Alfred students to accompany her on long
road trips. “Dancing is my drug of choice,”
says Solin, who found the concerts cathar-
tic. She carted along her projects, once con-
structing a 12-piece plaster sculpture in the
parking lot of a Dead show in Richmond,
Virginia, fetching water in a bucket to keep
the plaster pliable.
She was coping, but not thriving. A
warning from the university snapped Solin
out of her doldrums. She began working
nonstop on her art, staying in the studio
until it closed at 2 a.m. Ultimately, she grad-
uated and won a scholarship to Pilchuck
Glass School, to study with William Morris
and other noted glassblowers. At first, she
had that familiar out-of-her-element feeling;
an instructor chastised her when she didn’t
know how to set up her bench in the tradi-
tional Italian style. Midway through the
course, though, Morris called everyone
over to watch her work. “He said, ‘Look
at this chick! She’s really doing something
interesting,’ ” Solin remembers.
After Pilchuck, Solin moved to San
Francisco and taught school for 10 years,
Solin and her crew.
From left: George
Billesimo, Marie
Formichelli, Michael
Wind, and Solin.
Solin uses glass cane
and frit to add ribbons
and splashes of color
to her work.
056 american craft dec/jani2
