The Lamp Maker’s Studio
I first stepped inside L. Tschopp, 10830 Main St. in Clarence, several years ago to have a lamp repaired. The owner, Larry Tschopp, told me that my lamp was not worth the expense of the repair, but I went ahead with it anyway. I loved the lamp as it had personal value to me, regardless of its market value. In my eyes, it was irreplaceable. I always thought that one of my children would break it, but it was me. I am the guilty one. I knocked it over while casually tossing a folded blanket into the corner. The lamp is a dark bronze angel holding a tulip-shaped glass shade. Upon crashing into my sunroom floor, one of the five curved petals of the tulip shattered. Tschopp created a custom piece of curved glass to replace it. The repair was worth every penny. If anything, I felt that Tschopp undercharged me for the work that had to be done. I was profoundly grateful for both his skill and willingness to help me.
Tschopp is a truly talented artist and craftsperson. Some of his own whimsical creations, custom-made lamps and works of stained glass, are on display in the shop. In addition to creating and repairing lamps and stained glass, he does bronze work and metal repair. Tschopp generally does not sell his lamps because, as we artists know, it is hard to charge customers for the time, skill, and effort that goes into the construction of a handmade product, in this case, a one-of-a-kind stained-glass lamp.
Tschopp has a background in fine art. He went to art school years ago but got into stained glass after finding himself unemployed. He bought 10830 Main St. in 1989. Previously, it had been an Odd Fellows’ Lounge. Supposedly, the group had a secret meeting room upstairs. It is believed that, to join the organization, prospective members had to enact skits from the Bible—skits that are only known by the Odd Fellows. The costumes in the back of his studio, such as Roman Soldier costumes, were used for these enactments. There is also a stage on the ground floor. (The stage and costumes are visible in my painting.) The Odd Fellows would serve the community in various ways and held skating parties in the building for children.
Tschopp told me that the market for stained glass has changed over the years. At its height, Tiffany employed hundreds of employees that produced handmade lamps. Sadly, most Americans are now used to paying very little money for mass produced goods. Alas, the lamps that we buy today, even those to which we may be sentimentally attached, are generally produced in this way.
My painting, The Lamp Maker’s Studio, was inspired by my visit to L. Tschopp, 10830 Main St. It is the kind of place that one encounters in a dream. Upon entering the building, I was struck by the colors, the light, the costumes, and all that there was, and is, to see. I loved the layers and history of the place. I admired the fact that, upon taking over the building, Tschopp retained so much of its previous life. He could have rented a dumpster and thrown everything into the trash just as all-too-many insensible new building owners paint over beautiful hardwood doors and brick exteriors. Fortunately, he did not. As a result, when walking into his studio, we enter a dream, or a series of dreams. We breathe the past in the present. Our experience of the world is rendered richer and more complex than it otherwise would be.
I took several photographs during my initial visit and returned to take some more and to talk to the shop owner and lamp maker, Larry Tschopp. In consultation with my brilliant painting instructor, Joan Horn, and fellow students and artists, I strayed somewhat from the photograph that served as my primary reference. I brought down the dark mural along the back wall to make the angels at the altar, my focal point, stand out. I replaced a drab and uninteresting lamp in the left-hand corner with a more beautiful one that I spotted elsewhere in the shop. I eliminated or deemphasized (through my use of color, value, degree of detail, etc.) certain objects in the room that did not contribute to my objectives for the painting.
The final piece is oil paint on 18 by 18 on cradled wood panel.
Available
$800 unframed