Back to Full List Music and Light Waves Douglas Longman Fused Glass Freestanding Panels Karen Abel, Artist Doug Longman's life work has been the Issaquah School District's orchestra program. Doug was born and raised in northern California. When he was in second grade, the city of Berkley school program put a violin in his hands. After earning a degree in music performance, he switched his Master's program to music education. Doug started teaching for the Issaquah School District in 1979 and almost immediately proposed building an orchestra program. In 1983, Superintendent Kateri Brow gave him the green light and he started the program at the district's six elementary schools. He continued to lead and build the program year by year, advancing it to the junior high school and finally the high school levels. Doug is currently the Director of the Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra - the only high school orchestra in Washington State that draws performers from all high schools in the district. Doug's enthusiasm for travel is shared with his students as he leads them on yearly performance trips across the country and abroad, most recently to London and Paris. He believes that music opens doors and enjoys helping his students discover other perspectives and cultures. Several years back while on a performance trip to the east coast, Doug offered the orchestra's assistance in playing at a wedding for a couple they didn't even know. So on a meltingly hot day, in a small church, the orchestra graciously performed. Years later, the couple, now living in California, found themselves with the financial ability to give back to causes they felt important about. They remembered the gracious generosity of Doug's students, and set up the Niles Family Scholarship for the Evergreen Orchestra. The scholarship is awarded each year to a deserving senior. While artist Karen Abel's approach to this glass sculpture was inspired by Doug's love and life of music, she was most influenced by his extraordinary positive energy, sense of humor and playfulness. Karen's work contains lyrical curvilinear forms as well as rhythmic geometric ones yet Doug's sense of playfulness and energy permeates the structure. Even the geometric patterns can only follow rules so long before falling out of line to pursue their own sense of fun. The layering of music to create complex and rich orchestral scores motivated her to create four individual glass components that work together to create a single piece. Yet again, Doug's sense of playfulness and creativity dominates Karen's piece: she purposely did not anchor the individual pieces to a permanent base because she wants to encourage the viewer to rearrange the glass musical elements to create their own compositions over and over again. Doug's violin peg reminds us that at heart, in addition to being a teacher, traveler and conductor, Doug is a violinist. Personal Item: Violin Peg