Connie Beckers, the Goddess of Glass

Connie Beckers is an award winning glass artist in North Minneapolis, MN. She operates a retail gift shoppe, The Goddess of Glass & Friends, and a glass studio at The Funky Bungalow.

She began her career in 1995 with an introductory stained glass class through Patrick Henry Community Education for her 40th birthday. She has since pursued additional training in stained glass and kiln-working at J Ring Glass Studio in St Paul, MN and Gaytee Glass in NE Minneapolis. She began selling her creations on consignment at local gift and coffee shops. Next were craft fairs and then on to fine art festivals. She even hosted and organized shows of her own to help promote the work of artists she called friends. She cobbled together enough income to support herself by selling her work on consignment and at art fairs, teaching classes and making custom art glass windows for private and public parties.

This window was commissioned by The Friends of Loring Park in 2004 and was completed and installed in August 2009. Jon Olson from the Mpls Park Board introduced the idea to The Friends group to design a 4′ x 4′ quatrefoil window for the Community Arts Building in Loring Park. The design is by Reynaldo Diaz, an artist and resident of the neighborhood. Connie worked with apprentice Sarah Ruehmann and assistant Sherry Nolan to transform Rey’s color pencil drawing into the magnificent window you see today. The artists incorporated both Tiffany-style stained glass and kiln-made glass to stay authentic to the artist’s rendering.

Also during this time, Connie devoted several years helping organize a local arts organization to help build a strong network of artists in North Minneapolis; Artists who would participate in, and be recognized for, their contributions to community enrichment.

When she left the organization in 2009, she opened a gift shoppe in her neighborhood featuring consigned artwork from the the varied and talented people she’d met along the way. Today, The Goddess of Glass & Friends is filled with the work of over 60 local artists and offers custom picture framing. She works with The Lowry Cafe to share exhibitions from local artists and is helping develop The Lowry Corridor Business Association.

The Goddess made her national television debut in November 2011 on the DIY Network. Producers asked her to create a glass tile back splash for a kitchen make over, which you can see by clicking this link.

Pat Carney is the name sake of a Minneapolis creative studio, The Carney Group. He began his career as a photographer and transitioned into graphic arts.

Located at Glenwood Avenue and Colfax, The Carney Group is a rich blend of diverse creative talents that has been in business for over 20 years with a client base that includes Public Radio International, The British Broadcasting Company, Cenex, Tremendous Entertainment Company, Parker Rosen Law Firm, and numerous radio programs such as This American Life, What’d Ya Know and BBC’s Newshour.

Lately, photography has become a larger part of the creative work from The Carney Group. Pat photographs events and personalities in support of the communications work being produced by his firm. His personal commitment has, for the last few years, been the events, scenes and personalities of North Minneapolis.

http://carney.com/galleries/gettingout/

http://carney.com/galleries/redeemer_block_party_2010/

http://carney.com/galleries/interfaith/

http://carney.com/galleries/harrison_gardens/

http://carney.com/galleries/flow/

http://carney.com/galleries/flow2009/

http://carney.com/galleries/flow2010/

Much of his artistic work of the last few years has been large panoramic images. Several are on permanent display and part of the permanent collection at Coloplast in North Minneapolis.

http://carney.com/galleries/horizontally/