Pipes in Stripes

John Kenneth Clark has worked as a professional commissioned artist since 1984, primarily focusing on glass projects in Europe and most recently Africa, using a combination of glass etching, painting, and kilnformed glass. Clark first became acquainted with Bullseye glass while creating a fused glass window for the Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain, Scotland. In early 2019, Clark explored the relationship between music and color, transcribing or transposing musical pieces into glass during his residency at Bullseye Glass Co. in Portland, Oregon. 

Having developed a notation that matches sound waves to lightwaves and then transcribes individual notes into individual colors, Clark turned to Bullseye Studio in order to create Pipes in Stripes, an architectural glass window that expresses in colored glass the musical patterns of four traditional bagpipe songs. The window, a commission for a private residence in Scotland, provides what Clark calls “music frozen in time.” Bullseye Studio assisted with color testing and fabrication of the 100 x 36 x 5/16″ glasswork. With the musical notation indistinguishable from the window, its colors and composition change with the moving lights of time and context in a seasonal symphony. According to Clark, the bagpipe window is just the beginning of expressing music in fused Bullseye glass. His next ambition is to see translations of songs that require distinct colors for every note on a piano keyboard.