Welcome to a visual cacophony of whimsical and eccentric sculpted glass sea monsters as a response to my research of the sea monsters found on medieval and Renaissance maps. Many of these sea monsters exist as a representation of the loss of potential discovery, while acting as a facetious metaphor for the unknown state of the future of our oceans. To medieval and Renaissance beholders, the sea monsters on European maps represented real, unknown, dangers. To modern eyes, however, they are whimsical adorning elements which leave us reminiscent of a time when these Shakespearean terrors were a frightful force to be reckoned with.

Even in the twenty-first century, one of the few places that can still evoke a sense of mystery is the ocean. Thousands of feet of cold dark waters beneath the surface creates the perfect canvas for the extrapolation of fantastic fish and denizens of the deep. Ultimately, the only difference between current and medieval fears is four hundred years of modernization. With the advent of electric lights to push away the darkness, it is nearly impossible today to blame our flaws on monsters.

Glass has a longstanding tradition of using complicated techniques of the time to create extravagant, nonsensical sculptures of monsters. Ancient glassblowers created small sculptural animals and monsters; and glassblowers of the Renaissance commonly adorned goblets with sea serpents, or utilized pulled cane to create small vessel-like monsters or trick-glasses. This is a small facet in the history of glassblowing that my research has focused on accentuating within my artwork.