Dichroic Paintings
Slonem’s new dichroic painting series emerged, quite literally, through the looking glass.
The lush, dimensional line work of Slonem’s oil paintings led him to explore the layered complexity of dichroic glass.
Originally created by NASA as a coating for space-bound scientific instruments, the luminescent dichroic coating serves as an undulating canvas for the artist to carve his form into.
Presented in a custom-made ocular glass frame design sourced from the 18th century.
Dichroic glass is glass that has been coated with metal oxides in vapor form. The identifying feature of dichroic glass is the two-color shift depending on the lighting.
To make dichroic glass, the glass is placed in an airless vacuum chamber, then quartz crystal and metal oxides are heated to a vaporous form using electronic beam gun and the glass passes through the environment of vapor, coating the face and creating the color.