TOM DEKLE
NEWS/PHOTO EDITOR

A “glass tapestry” has been installed to provide a window on the world at the main branch of the Nelson County Public Library system. The new main branch on New Haven Road opened April 15 in a remodeled and extensively renovated building that once housed Flaget Memorial Hospital.

Glass artist Laura Mentor, Louisville, was commissioned to create a stained glass display for the reading room, which was fashioned from the portico that at one time provided cover for the main entrance to the hospital.

“I’m really pleased. Very, very pleased,” Mentor said during the
installation Tuesday.

Mentor has been working on the project since July 2006 and this was her
first opportunity to see the work displayed in its entirety.

“Think of this as a big glass tapestry about Bardstown. Each section has to hold your attention but it also has to work as a whole,” she said. The stained glass work includes six 4-foot by 4.5-foot panels, each of which weighs about 65 pounds. The panels were installed in a special frame inside the front window in the portico. The work is “like a poem, a visual poem” depicting scenes and subjects important to Bardstown, the area and the world, she said.

“It’s a visual way of communicating information. I tried to (convey) something about world culture and our access to that in the library,” while also depicting historical and cultural information important to Nelson County and the local community, she said. One panel shows the music and some lyrics from Stephen Foster’s song, “My Old Kentucky Home.” Another depicts the riverboat designed by John Fitch. Other scenes show historical structures such as St. Vincent Church on the campus of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and the old county courthouse on Court Square. Still more show wildflowers native to the area, gears to represent industry, a 24-hour clock-face to represent time, scenes from the zodiac and the phases of the moon. The different subjects are meant to flow freely from one to another with local aspects integrated into world culture, Mentor said.

“I don’t have any earthly idea about how many pieces of glass” were used
to create the work, Mentor said, but described her technique as traditional glass painting, similar to that which was used to create the stained glass windows in the cathedrals of Europe.

It is an “extremely time consuming technique,” that involves multiple firings of glass in a kiln to fuse paint onto the glass, coupled with sandblasting certain areas from glass surfaces to create detailed, translucent images ranging from vivid color to monochromatic depictions.

Mentor used glass from Poland, France, Germany and some from the United States to create the work. She also created a window for the public library in Frankfort and will
soon start on a set for a library in Somerset. She is also working on a second set of panels, which will be displayed in the Children’s Section of the Bardstown library.

“I love libraries. I’ve spent a lot of time in libraries,” she said. “I learn something every time I do these. I learn a lot,” Mentor said.