Rushford artist Nicole Burk, owner of Sequential Glass Art Mosaic, brings flowers, insects, pets, and fantasy creatures to life in colorful stained glass, evoking the feel of a garden in bloom.
Burk’s artist statement is the first thing you will see on her website sequentialglass.com. “Artists do not make beauty; they participate in beauty. They perceive the beauty inherent in the world and represent it in their work.”
Burk studied graphic design in the Twin Cities in the early 1990s. During her final semester, instructors introduced what was then a brand-new concept – the internet – along with computer layout programs such as Publisher and Photoshop. Although she received only a few months of computer training in school, her first job was entirely computer-based.
She later realized she did not want to work in advertising, which is what graphic design is. After bouncing between jobs, she took a position at an antique store. The owner and his wife were stained-glass artists dating back to the 1970s. Burk also worked for another craftsman restoring stained-glass windows at night. The antique store owner taught her mosaics.
Around this time, she met her husband Michael, who was painting houses. He suggested she create decorative house numbers. Together, they developed a system, and he began promoting her work to his colleagues. Today, Burk jokes that her number one salesperson is her husband.
She designed layouts on the computer and cut everything by hand using new and antique tools after scoring the glass, creating one-of-a-kind mosaics.
As a Norwegian, Burk also paints rosemaling (rose-painting) on reclaimed wood, a traditional Norwegian folk-art style.
“I have painted my whole life,” Burk said.
One of Burk’s major influences is Louis Comfort Tiffany; he is known for his jewelry and lamps. “He was an amazing mosaicist or would hire amazing mosaicists. “He did the stained glass, and he developed different kinds of stain glass that companies to this day are still trying to replicate how they made this glass,” explained Burk. “It was usually very textured and thick. It would give his pieces such depth and bounciness. He was always striving to replicate nature, leaves, water, sky, all that stuff.” That is what Burk is trying to do. In the Cities she was working with a gal that had a fusion store. Burk said she wanted to learn to make gradated glass, like from white to red, or yellow to orange to replicate flower petals.
She also works part time at the Root River Floral in Rushford. During a studio visit, she pointed out several vases of flowers. They had been destined for the trash, she explained, so she rescued them and brought them home, unsure of how she would use them.
As she described her process for creating a project, Burk said her tagline is, “They have to look at it every day,” noting that she can make almost anything – and that it will look cool.
She shared a story from the Driftless Area Art Festival: “I made a tiny sample, about a quarter size of her original house signs, and a woman who lived in a tiny house bought it. It was number three. She said she doesn’t have a house number so now it will be number three. Burk said she might start making tiny house numbers.
Another standout piece Burk shared was an eight-foot lighthouse installed in a couple’s shower.
A customer who has a second home in Lanesboro asked Burk to make a house number. A year later, she asked Burk to make a memorial piece for her wife after their dogs had died.
Burk participates in the Driftless Area Art Festival in Viroqua, which draws shoppers from Madison and Chicago who enjoy the scenic day trip through what she describes as “extreme bluffs — where we are the farm bluffs.” She also participates in Lanesboro’s Art in the Park, her favorite show, where she often sets up next to a friend from the Cities who sells jewelry.
Additional shows include the Bluff Country Studio Art Tour, Viterbo University’s Art Fair on the Green, Syttende Mai (where she sells her rustic rosemaling pieces), Gammel Dag, and other regional events.
Burk makes it easy to place custom orders. Visit her Etsy shop, which she has operated since 2019. She also enjoys showing people around her studio and talking about her work, but she asks that visitors call first at 612-207-7056, as she works out of her home in Rushford. Her email address is info@sequentialglass.com.
Leave a Reply