Debbie Tarsitano speaks about her pushing the idea of encasement. Oral history interview with Debbie Tarsitano by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, April 18, 2019, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:49.

Debbie Tarsitano: Well, paperweights was evolving. I was one of the people that was hoping to evolve paperweights to join the contemporary art glass that—I’m talking about modern paperweights—to join the contemporary art glass scene. And I actually didn’t feel there was any reason why the modern artists today, the younger artists, who—that came around, shouldn’t be kind of pursuing the form differently, and to be looking at what’s being made by the contemporary artists in glass and other contemporary artworks, and try to find a way to take that idea of encasement and bring it into something else. And so I started to foster that idea in kind of a very forceful way, which didn’t go over very well with a lot of people because paperweights are relatively a traditional art form. And even when there’s cubes or, it’s not that far from what was made in the historical record. Cause there were plaques and things, and cut square things made in the historical record. So it’s like I wanted to bring it like, to the next place. And I worked very hard prior to like, 2009. I wrote articles about it, too, to try to say, ‘Hey, let’s, think of it as encasement.’ You’re encasing—flamework. Encased flamework—I like to think. And so we can take that flamework, and it doesn’t have to be flowers and things. It could be anything; we can open it up. It could be anything. And it could be flowers, but we need to think of like, how could it be a format for like, the times we live in. And so I pushed that a lot, and I started making a lot of forms, I made like bird forms, and abstract forms with encasement in it, and I painted the outside and sandblasted. And I did everything to a paperweight or a form that you could possibly think of.