New window in Sisters library

Last month, when our library was officially closed for the normal two-day rest, a transformation took place. A magnificent 200-pound fused-glass art piece was installed in the round window above the entrance foyer.

The whole idea got rolling when library staff member Sandy McDonald mentioned to Peg Bermel, library manager at the time, that the foyer looked bare and needed "something." Peg then took Sandy's concern to members of the FOSL Art Committee that she would like to see something done with the vaulted ceiling area of the foyer.

A mural? Stained glass? Metal sculpture? A mobile? Lots of ideas were tossed out on the table.

Art committee member Paul Allan Bennett said he thought he had found the perfect medium - fused glass art by Ann Cavanaugh, an artist from Battle Ground, Washington.

In the past eight years, Cavanaugh has gone from experimenting with fused glass in her spare time to an award-winning glass artist whose work is in collections across the country, and represented by six galleries in three states.

"I work from back to front on the piece, maintaining a vision of what is going on in the veryback plane on the picture - the sky - and lay all the sky down," she explained. "Then the next visual plane: the mountains, and lay them down on the sky.I keep building on each previous layer. I do not try to cut around pieces but always lay over the piece behind.This grows the piece very thick.

"For the library window I built edges, or dams, around the two halves that were about one-inch tall, knowing that I would be piling lots of glass on top of each other.After I have filled the whole tray and worked to the top front layer I fire the piece.I try to fire as few times as needed to get the effect.

"One of my favorite tools is hairspray; the cheaper the better.I never have been one to fuss with my hair so I didn't start buying hair spray until I started doing fused glass. It makes great glue!"

When the art committee saw her first samples, a few suggestions were made to Ann for slight changes, but one person on the committee in particular was really interested: Marianne Fettkether, lovingly known as Fetty to all who have enjoyed her presence and hard work on the FOSL board and as a volunteer in the library over the years.

Fetty's dear departed husband, Bill, was a person who loved to work with light; he was a classic photographer who studied under one of America's champion photographers, Ansel Adams.

In Fetty's thinking, the new window captured the light and scenic beauty of Central Oregon, especially as seen from Sisters Country, and thought it would be an excellent choice as a memorial for her talented and loving husband, Bill.

Everyone agreed that the piece would be an excellent memorial for Bill, and especially Ann Cavanaugh.

Last month, Gene Caverhill, Robert Reed, and Jessie Park of Bend Glass & Mirror, carefully raised the newly crafted window to the new place it will live at the entrance of the library.

Dedication of the new glass window as a memorial to Bill Fettkether will be on June 16 at the Sisters Library.