A local glass artist’s ‘shattered’ 9/11 works capture life’s fragility

Artist Henry Halem says the pieces use minimal color and simple geometric shapes. “I didn’t feel I could use any real color.” Submitted photo

A local glass artist’s ‘shattered’ 9/11 works capture life’s fragility

- Lyndsey Brennan

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Kent State Professor Emeritus Henry Halem was at home. Like many Americans, he watched the second plane collide with the south tower in real time on television. “I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” he recalled. “I couldn’t imagine something like that could actually happen.” 

Halem, a Kent resident who ran the university’s glass program for nearly three decades before retiring in 1998, said he carried his grief and anger about 9/11 with him for about 10 years before he was able to make art about it. 

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