Janis Miltenberger: Finding Meaning in Glass

Productive Uncertainty | North Gallery | March 6 – June 1, 2026

There is a moment in every Janis Miltenberger sculpture where glass stops being glass. Where a sandblasted stem becomes a map of the body, a sprig of blackberries becomes a meditation on what we let go of and what we hold onto, a nest cradling a human heart becomes a question about what we choose to hold dear. Miltenberger works in the tradition of allegory — each piece a small world with a story inside it — and the North Gallery at SJIMA is, right now, full of those worlds.

Janis Miltenberger builds each sculpture from an internal structure, adding elements one by one. Productive Uncertainty is on view in the North Gallery at SJIMA through June 1, 2026.

Her exhibition Productive Uncertainty brings together work organized into three interconnected groupings: Works in Blue, a series of grief-inflected wall pieces; The Doctrine of Signatures, inspired by the historical belief that plants carry visual clues to their medicinal uses; and An Intimate Area, a collection of large-scale standing sculptures. Together they form a cohesive meditation on how human beings have always reached for meaning — through symbol, through story, through the careful observation of the natural world.

Glass as a Narrative Medium

Miltenberger has been a lampworker for twenty-five years, working with borosilicate glass at a torch — shaping rods and tubing with heat, building an internal structure and adding elements one by one. She begins with a sketch, but the material has its own ideas. "It's a practice, really," she said during her recent interview at SJIMA.

"At least weekly I discover new things about the material that I hadn't discovered before." - Janis Miltenberger

The results are intricate, layered objects that reward slow looking. Some surfaces are left glossy, catching and refracting light; others are sandblasted to a matte finish that absorbs it. The contrast is intentional. Sandblasting, Miltenberger explains, takes the shine off and lets you see the form clearly — but it also carries a narrative connotation. The shift from dull to shiny within a single piece becomes a way of telling the story, of emphasizing where the meaning lives.

Painting is also part of her process, allowing her to control subtle color transitions. But many of the works in this exhibition are built primarily from colored glass – the material itself doing the work.

The Doctrine of Signatures

The conceptual heart of the exhibition is The Doctrine of Signatures, a historical framework that held each plant contains a visible sign of its purpose — its "signature" — discernible to those who know how to look. A plant growing in damp, dark conditions might treat a wet cold. The sap of a plant might indicate its medicinal application. For Miltenberger, who has long held a deep interest in both plants and healing, it was a natural entry point.

Janis Miltenberger, Doctrine of Signatures: Pulmonaria (right) and Doctrine of Signatures: Digitalis (left). Lampworked borosilicate glass, sandblasted, 22k gold, oil paint. On view through June 1, 2026.

"I loved the fact that it was a visual representation I could grab onto — and that it also embraced these disciplines I had a lot of interest in: plants and healing." - Janis Miltenberger

In her hands, botanical forms flow into human anatomy, each piece tracing the ancient logic of a world that communicated its own remedies through form, context, and signature.

Works in Blue: A Personal Reckoning

Iris, from the Works in Blue series. Lampworked borosilicate glass, sandblasted, oil paint. 22" x 15" x 4"

The most personal works in the exhibition are pieces in Works in Blue, created in memory of Miltenberger's daughter Ariana, whose middle name, Iris, means "colors of the rainbow" in Greek. The pieces are a thistle — chosen because the plant appears in European royal crests as a symbol of strength and resilience, and Ariana was, in her mother's words, incredibly courageous and strong — and a forget-me-not, which Miltenberger has simply titled Forget You Not.

"When something like that happens," she said of her daughter's death, "it becomes really clear how short your time still here is." From that loss came an unexpected resolve: having experienced the worst, she found herself asking, "What else do I have to lose?"

An Intimate Area: Symbols in Conversation

The large standing sculptures in An Intimate Area draw on Art Nouveau — a movement Miltenberger loves for its design and for what she sees as its ongoing dialogue between exterior and interior, the organic and the constructed. A bird sits in a nest holding a human heart and a wishbone. A cage blooms with lotus flowers and leaves. Blackberries — dark, blood-like, capable of staining and pricking — appear alongside imagery that echoes older traditions of sacrifice and renewal.

Three works from An Intimate Area, Janis Miltenberger's series of large-scale lampworked glass sculptures drawing on Art Nouveau symbolism and the natural world. North Gallery, SJIMA.

Miltenberger describes her process as intuitive rather than planned. "I don't really think about these things as I'm building the work," she said. "It's often my own need of what I want out of that particular piece." The symbols emerge, and the meaning comes later — in reflection.

Eggs appear in two of the standing pieces, one held and one carried on the head. They are, she says, about possibility. "The hope of what might come."

A Practice Built on Friendship with the Material

Miltenberger began her apprenticeship in glassblowing at nineteen, and later studied at Pilchuck Glass School, where lampworking became her medium. Her career has taken her to teaching residencies across North America, Europe, and Asia, and her work has been exhibited internationally. She lives on Lopez Island, where the surrounding marine environment continues to shape what she makes.

"While studio life is largely solitary," she has said, "this solitude provides the focus needed to create intimate, narrative-driven works."

That intimacy is palpable in the North Gallery. These are not pieces you take in from a distance. You get close. You look for the signature. And if you're paying attention, you find it.

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Productive Uncertainty is on view in the North Gallery at SJIMA through June 1, 2026. Hear Miltenberger speak about her work and process in her artist interview on the SJIMA YouTube channel.

The museum is located at 540 Spring Street in Friday Harbor and is open Friday through Monday, 11 AM–5 PM. General admission is $10; members and visitors under 18 are always free. Admission is pay-what-you-like every Monday.

Plan your visit at sjima.org.

SPONSORS:

Honeywell Foundation, Mark Torrance Foundation, Town of Friday Harbor, San Juan County. In-Kind Sponsors: Browne’s Home Center, Harbor Rental, Printonyx, Terry Ogle Painting