Dungeness Crab (Metacarcinus magister)
Cast and frit-cast glass, 2025
This is a frit-cast glass sculpture of a Dungeness crab created for the Glass Lifeforms 2025 juried exhibition at the Pittsburgh Glass Center. The crab’s translucent body rests on a solid cast base of textured green glass, evoking and underwater feeling in motion. The palette includes gentle hues of lavender, rose, and seafoam. The layered textures and rounded shell nod to the early 20th-century pâte de verre style of Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, where form and translucency converge to create objects that feel suspended in reality. I chose to sculpt a crab after noticing confirmed crab sightings in Lake Merritt, Oakland, on iNaturalist. Growing up in the Bay Area, Dungeness crab was a seasonal tradition for my family we celebrated around the holidays, with meals centered around cracked shells. In recent years, that season has become shorter and more tightly regulated to protect marine life and ecosystems, and rightfully so. For me, the fragility of glass parallels the fragility of those traditions and our changing relationship with the environment. This piece is both a tribute to a memory, and the delicate balance between human rituals and the natural world.