Home to southern Ohio for the holidays, and a chance to reconnect with family and old friends. Over lunch with my high school chum Vicki and her boyfriend Dave, we learn (or r
elearn?) that Dave's undergrad degree is in art, and he is a fellow "art nerd" with a few art history courses under his belt. This discovery leads to an afternoon excursion to downtown Middletown, Ohio to the Riordan Stained Glass Studio. The oldest such studio in the country, it's a veritable gem on a bleak, wintery day in a city that's been through hard times lately. Vicki lives in an historic, 19th century home and got to know the studio's owners and artists when she and her late hu
sband commissioned a period reproduction stained glass panel for their stairway landing. She and Dave were eager to introduce us and let us have a peek at the jewels created within the walls of what I remember as the old Murphy's Five-and-Ten (way back in the '60s)!
elearn?) that Dave's undergrad degree is in art, and he is a fellow "art nerd" with a few art history courses under his belt. This discovery leads to an afternoon excursion to downtown Middletown, Ohio to the Riordan Stained Glass Studio. The oldest such studio in the country, it's a veritable gem on a bleak, wintery day in a city that's been through hard times lately. Vicki lives in an historic, 19th century home and got to know the studio's owners and artists when she and her late hu
sband commissioned a period reproduction stained glass panel for their stairway landing. She and Dave were eager to introduce us and let us have a peek at the jewels created within the walls of what I remember as the old Murphy's Five-and-Ten (way back in the '60s)!As we enter Riordan's, I catch a glimpse of a group of priests in the back room (in their black cassocks and white collars), gathered around a work table and examining a sketch being explained by an artist. Turns out they're from a church in Kentucky that's expanding and installing new stained glass. For a brief second, I could envision a group of medieval clergy gathered around the glaziers' artist or the master mason of the cathedral project, giving their final approval to the guild's design or the architect's plan. Not a whole lot has changed over the last 800 years or so!
The studio creates anything from neo-Gothic designs to Tiffany-style lamps to contemporary secular work to finely detailed jewelry. Even on a gray December afternoon, the work samples lining the windows glow with their own fire. The owners invite Dave and me to rifle through their vast collection of art books, while Vicki and Cliff look on in bewildered amusement. I could have spent hours there and hope to make this a regular "pilgrimage" on trips home from now on. What fun!
