“Sunset” by Edith Acton

River City Art Association member Edith Acton of Terre Haute is the featured artist in January and February in RCAA’s Outreach Gallery at Westminster Village in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Edith is known throughout the Wabash Valley for her fused glass wall hangings and jewelry. She has received several awards at juried competitions in the bi-state area.

In August 2016, Edith received the Artists’ Choice Award for her “Sunset” entry in RCAA’s Annual Juried Exhibition. Also in fall 2016, “Sunset” was juried into the Arts Illiana annual exhibition.

Bear’s Paw Quilt Block by Edith Acton

Works by Edith at Westminster include “Sunset” and “Bear’s Paw Quilt Block,” a piece she created for RCAA’s Bicentennial Legacy Project endorsed by the Indiana Bicentennial Commission in 2016. Another wall hanging  by Edith, titled “Fireworks,” is part of the display in Westminster.

Life as a wife, mother, grandmother and teacher kept Acton very busy; however, in retirement she found time to pursue other interests. Art classes in high school and college provided a basic knowledge of the key elements to create and construct any artwork of choice. After pottery, ceramics, woodworking, painting and many more mediums, she discovered fused glass.

Example of fused glass by Edith Acton

For the past 11 years Acton has actively pursued her artwork with the medium of fused glass. There are numerous wall hangings that reveal an ability to use color in new and innovative ways to make decorative, eye-appealing artwork for office or home decor. An interesting sideline to having the many colors of glass used to make the wall hangings is that there are numerous pieces left that are just the right size to make jewelry. Countless women in the Terre Haute area are wearing the small pieces of artwork on their ears, necks and arms. Acton can usually be found at just about any festival that will allow her to display and possibly sell her work.

In her travels, Acton has met and talked with artists who use fused glass as their medium of choice. No two pieces alike. This amazing medium allows creativity that has no end. Each new piece, big or small, is an adventure that ends as it is removed from the kiln that morphed the individual pieces of glass into one. Any artist will tell their listener that the end result is the reason for their continual work toward their idea of perfection.

In addition to RCAA, Acton is an active member of Wabash Valley Art Guild, Rivers and Roads Artisan Trail, and Arts Illiana.