Mother, daughter make artistic team

Amy Klamper Correspondent

Judy Klier and her 18-year-old daughter, Jessica, are artists. Klier owns Crystal Klier Design, a glass and stone carving business, and has been working on the restoration of the Fox Theater. Jessica, a senior at Mt. Spokane High, is a painter. Her work is currently on exhibit at the Satellite Diner in downtown Spokane. (Holly Pickett/The Spokesman-Review)

Judy Klier was always interested in art. In high school she learned to etch designs into glass using acid, and in college she took a few art classes. She even did a stint working for a company that made stained glass. But it wasn't until Judy became a mother that her creative juices really began to flow. "Your kids kind of bring you back to it," says Judy, who lives with her husband, three kids and a Czech foreign exchange student in rural Colbert. "They start doing art, and so you do it with them."

Today Judy is running her own glass company – Crystal Klier Design – which specializes in artistic sandblasted glass and stone for commercial and residential projects.

"I always thought it was funny that I married someone named 'Klier,' " she says, noting the pronunciation of her married surname.

Although much of Judy's work is made up of large-scale plates of glass etched with intricate imagery, she says her first attempts at glass etching started with just a small sandblasting cabinet in her basement.

"Then I built a bigger one in the garage," she says of the mammoth wooden cabinet that currently occupies an entire parking space. This summer she hopes to complete work on a new art studio and sandblasting workshop now under construction on the Klier property.

Judy says the effect of sandblasting is similar to etching glass with acid, though the latter doesn't allow for the kind of meticulous layers that distinguish her work.

"Anybody can do etching, but carving takes more practice because you have to know what your machine is going to do," she says of her technique. "You get a lot more dimension and detail."

Over the years, as her skills improved, Judy added stone as a secondary medium.

"It's the same process, really, but I love the colors – sometimes when you blast into it, you get some really different colors," she says.

Today Judy's work is all over town, in commercial spaces and private homes – even the Fox Theater, where she is helping to replicate original wheel-carved glass panels in some of the light fixtures and along the mezzanine railing.

She's even working on a way to simulate resin-coated pieces of mirror that are part of several decorative stars on the theater's ceiling.

Although Judy stays busy with her work, she still finds time for art projects with her children. Her eldest daughter, Jessica Klier, is a senior in high school and a budding artist in her own right.

"Jessica will help me design, but she has no desire to do sandblasting – it is too dirty," Judy says of her daughter, who prefers drawing and painting. "Sandblasting is not real glamorous work."

Judging by her mother's impressive body of work, it's easy to see where aspiring artist Jessica Klier gets her talent.

Both mother and daughter have an eye for composition, technical execution, and detail, not to mention a healthy sense of entrepreneurship.

But the similarities largely end there.

While her mother enjoys the gritty and physically demanding work of sandblasting glass and stone, the 18-year-old senior at Mt. Spokane High prefers the small-scale of portrait drawing and the emotional impact of paint on canvas.

Jessica is currently exhibiting a series of five pieces at the Satellite Diner in downtown Spokane inspired by the ongoing crisis in Darfur. Her emotionally arresting images in charcoal and acrylic vividly illustrate the genocide that has claimed the lives of some 200,000 people since the conflict flared in 2003.

Jessica says proceeds from the sale of each piece will go to the nonprofit Save Darfur.

Although much of Jessica's work has involved summer jobs painting residential murals or drawing commissioned portraits, in the past couple of years she has fixed her attention on social justice and human rights issues.

"I was going to do a series based on a movie of Iraqi kids," Jessica says. "Then I read an article about Darfur in Government and decided to do that."

An earlier series was influenced by the 1997 film "Amistad," which recounts the aftermath of the 1839 rebellion aboard the Spanish slave ship.

"(Jessica) put them up in the Satellite, and they sold within a week," Judy says.

Although Jessica credits her mom with encouraging both her artistic abilities and business savvy, both mother and daughter know the challenges of forging a career in art.

"When I was younger, I wanted to be a painter, but it's hard to make a name for yourself," Jessica says.

Judy agrees.

"Art is such a tough thing to make a business in," she says.

With this in mind, Jessica will head to college this fall at the University of Montana, where she plans to to study fine arts and creative writing. She also looks forward to track and cross-country running – her other passion.

Even with the challenges that lie ahead, Judy hopes her daughter's innate talent and unique outlook on life will take her far.

"I remember when she was 4, she was at my drafting table drawing a picture of herself sitting there from behind," Judy recalls. "She has always done things from a different perspective than other kids."