Urve Manuel is a Canadian glass artist, based in Newfoundland and Labrador. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she created around 1,000 sun catchers to raise funds for Ukrainians; she ultimately collected about $46,000.
Early life and education
Manuel has Estonian heritage through her grandfather. She attended university in Toronto before moving to Newfoundland and Labrador in around 2003. She was a firefighter and a sea kayak guide, and became a glass artist after becoming self-taught in around 2004 after attending glass work classes in the evening. She attended the United States for graduate classes in art.
Career
Her glass work was exhibited in Toronto's One of a Kind Christmas show in 2013. She moved to Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 2015, where she founded a glass shop. As of 2022, she continues to work there.
One of her pieces is a recreation of an ice-fishing shack, which is made out of several panels of stained glass. The piece—which depicts the northern lights and the animals of Canada, including polar bears and fish—was inspired by her childhood; she, her siblings, and her grandfather would often go ice-fishing together. It took several months to create, and was first displayed in 2022. In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to a large number of refugees fleeing Ukraine, she began creating sun catchers to fund-raise for charities in Ukraine. She said her family's personal history of fleeing Estonia during Soviet occupation was similar to Ukrainians fleeing their own country. She initially planned to create 25 sun catchers a day, but a rise in demand led her to create more. In May 2022, after about two months of working on the fund-raising project, she sold about 1,000, and raised about $46,000 for various nonprofits.
References
Citations
- Vohra 2021.
- ^ Tensuda 2013.
- Little 2015.
- Writers at Woody Point 2022.
- ^ Crocker 2022.
- ^ CBC 2022.
- CBC 2022; Roberts 2022.
- Roberts 2022.
Bibliography
- Crocker, Diane (28 January 2022). "Gros Morne area artist's stained glass ice fishing shack 'flows together' in a combination of beauty and function". Salt Wire. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- Little, Dave (29 July 2015). "A sampling of northeast country art". Cabin Life. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- Roberts, Darrell (29 March 2022). "From the symphony to the nightclub, here's how people in N.L. are supporting Ukraine". CBC. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- Tensuda, Kaire (6 December 2013). "Klaasikunstnik Urve Manuel tuli Newfoundlandist Torontosse oma loomingut tutvustama" [Glass artist Urve Manuel came from Newfoundland to Toronto to present her work]. Eesti Elu (in Estonian). Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- Vohra, Ameeta (13 December 2021). "The softer side of glass". East Coast Living. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- "Urve Manuel". Writers at Woody Point. 2022. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- "With a little help from some friends, artist sells 1,000 suncatchers for Ukraine relief". CBC. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 9 June 2022.