Barbara Otterson - was born some time ago and doesn't plan on dying for quite awhile.  She began her art training at Mission: Renaissance in Hollywood, CA where she studied drawing and painting.  She later moved to St. Louis, MO where she continued her studies at Meramec Community College and Craft Alliance. Artist's Statement    I have been creating art for over twenty years-- ever since escaping from corporate America.  I started out working two dimensionally, but found it too limiting.  I experimented with various media before finding my artistic home.   I now create primarily in glass and sterling silver with occasional inclusions of brass, gold, copper and gemstones.  I love the elasticity and fluidity of glass.  Its free-flowing nature takes me to places I might not explore otherwise.  Juxtaposed with this is the unyielding character of metal.  It seeks to hold its own and challenges me to shape it to my will.    During the past few years I have found myself exploring the vessel as an art form more and more.  There is something evocative, instinctual, and basic in objects made to contain or hold. These instincts trace back to our earliest beginnings and quests for survival.  Our forbears made baskets and bowls to gather the things needed for survival and to convey them back to home and hearth.    I use the works I create to convey emotion: to communicate with those who view them.  I frequently dream my designs as completed pieces.  I then go to my studio to give them life in the waking world.  In this way my work conveys my dreams--figuratively and literally.  My works can be found in the collections of private individuals, churches and corporations throughout the United States.