“Rainbows will sparkle in the soup and arrows of light will fill the teacups.” 1
This prediction was made by the talented glass artist Rosalind Grimshaw while working on the Creation Window for Chester Cathedral and which was ultimately installed in the refectory there in 2001. Sadly, Rosalind’s death was announced last week.
Rosalind, a Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, was born in Africa in 1945 and trained in the studio of Joseph Bell and Son in Bristol where she finally settled. Despite being diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the early 1980’s Rosalind continued creating her much applauded works over the next 35 years, at times using sheer concentration to overcome her tiredness and uncontrollable shaking, and always doing the cutting and choosing of the glass herself.
In the Chester Cathedral window, as well as depicting the Hand of God moving through the Six Days of Creation, the window includes a scan of her own brain taken at Hammersmith Hospital and showing how much dopamine was left. You can read more about the window on the geograph.org.uk website2, hear Rosalind and her partner and collaborator, Peter Costeloe, on BBC Radio4’s Last Word3 and read about Rosalind’s work in an article by Ruth Margrove on the issuu.com website4. The article concludes “Rosalind Grimshaw’s work and studio is a testament to the human condition, illustrating perfectly how passion can overcome predicaments, however rough the road or fraught the journey.”
Ref. 1: https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/artists-new-creation-touch-glass-2947029
Ref. 2: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3963993
Ref. 3: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000ptbv
Ref. 4: https://issuu.com/rwabristol/docs/rwa_art_winter_2012_www/42