by Lena Morgan
images by Alix Cannon, Ian Lewis, & Doug Broadbent
Liquid Glass
on the end of a 5-foot-long constantly spinning steel pipe is molten, malleable, strong, delicate and damned dangerous.
Only the skilled glass blower can begin to control it; move it, shape it, and bring its strong inner core to light at the edges of its delicate skin. This is Art achieved through intense heat, physical strength and grace. Enter Rosalie Battah; professional glass blower and yoga master. As she tells me in our first interview,
“2200-degree glass is the consistency of honey; sticky, messy and big fun to play with!”
Rosalie Battah
OK, big fun if you happen to be Rosalie Battah.
Rosalie is an athlete by disposition, and a glass blower by training. She is a glass artist, yoga teacher, mentor, and healer by passionate choice. Strength and surety of movement are imperative to the delicate dance of glass taking new form. One slip and, well, remember 2200 degrees. Rosalie must be as fluid and adaptable as the material with which she works.
Rosalie’s art is both metaphor and mirror for the shape shifting work she performs in a dance of strength and trust with herself and her clients. Authentic in her knowing and affinity for listening, Rosalie expands what is possible as she, herself, learns to embody the dimensional roles of artist, yoga teacher, healer and mentor. By remaining strong, flexible, delicate, and sometimes nearly as molten as her glass, Rosalie has found and continues to find her true and fullest expression.
Clear glass shows depth and clarity. It refracts light, magnifies images, and exhibits the naked beauty of the material in its purest form.
As a glass artist, she guides the raw, liquid elements of glass into delicate fierce, beautiful, and playful shapes. As a Forrest Yoga Teacher, she encourages her clients to explore their inner depths, to take on poses of strength, and to trust in themselves and their power. As a mentor, she guides them into expanded awareness of themselves, their capabilities, and their unlimited potential. As a healer, trained in Reiki and energetic tools, she helps her clients shape shift their physical and spiritual realities.
Rosalie’s life has been rich in experience and learning. From early life as an athlete and scholar, to graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design, to Seattle and her nine years as an artist at the famed Chihuly glass blowing studio, Rosalie’s cache of expressive tools has evolved. Her expansion into training and certification in Forrest Yoga, and into the expressive and healing arts have led Rosalie to create her own extraordinary body of glasswork, her own business, and her own healing practice. And they all overlap in near seamless synergy.
Rosalie learns as she teaches. She teaches as she learns. As she weaves into a yoga retreat her deep knowing of energetic principles, the healing energy infuses her glass creations. This synergy allows her to forge new ways to achieve her goals, and those of her clients, both human and glass.
Rosalie values the innate physical wisdom held within the body. She values core strength, intuition, inner knowing, calculated risk, and trust. In yoga Rosalie teaches, “Focus on Breath, Strength, Integrity and Spirit. Use these elements to face fears, strengthen the body, connect to spirit, and learn to move in trust and integrity.” Then she brings these tools and energies to her glass studio. She breathes, stands tall and strong, faces the furnace and blows. The glass flows smooth and brilliant.
As she prepared for her recent glass exhibit, entitled “Shatter”, Rosalie found wisdom from her own struggles to shatter self-imposed boundaries and limitations. She now shares this process in a yoga mentorship series customized for clients to shatter their own glass ceilings. Rosalie’s next glass exhibit is entitled Shape Shifting. Once again, she will utilize her strong core of yoga practice to draw the art from the core of the glass. She will weave her healing energies into each piece even as she brings all of her strength into the magic of blowing a delicate creation from a spinning orb.
Whether practicing or teaching yoga; working with yantra, mantra, or mudra; blowing glass or painting; engaged in a healing session for herself or for clients; Rosalie through full presence becomes her greatest expression.
As Rosalie says, “the process of energetic and physical shape shifting is just like glass blowing. It is messy and sticky, peppered with doubt and mystery. It takes great strength. But with intention and commitment, the authentic client can be revealed just as can the authentic art piece.” The Shape Shifting exhibit as well as her yoga mentorship series bearing the same name most certainly will enlighten.
For Rosalie Battah, the truth will be revealed, at the end of a spinning steel rod or at the end of an intense yogic healing session.
Learn more about Rosalie
rosaliebattah.com