Glass is the starting point for all my work. Whether the glass is cast, coldworked, bent, fused, and/or airbrushed depends on the specific effect I seek. The works have an understated elegance based on Zen principles of harmony, respect, purity and tranquility. While not overtly spiritual, they often evoke a spiritual response. They move us out of our everyday existence by providing the viewer a reason to pause, to support 'being' rather than 'doing.'

Recycling: Many of the materials I use are found or recycled. Winning an award as Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco's Recycling Center and Solid Waste Transfer Station in 1995 both validated my recycling habits and gave me access to new materials. In 2006, I won a cash award from the California Department of Conservation for a set of my Archival Footprints™ tiles. Most of my pieces are not readily recognizable as incorporating recycled materials because I feel strongly that art from recycled materials does not necessarily have to be funny or funky.

Penelope Starr has been working in glass for over 40 years, with commisioned pieces in corporate, public and private environments. Her formal education is in design, architecture and environmental planning: Harvard University AB & MCP. She also studied color at Yale with Josef Albers, and landscape design in the SF Bay Area. In the mid 1980's she switched from flat to three dimensional work.