Also this issue: Bad for the Business A trio of showbiz books walks on the mean side. -A.D. Amorosi artquicks More stuff going on this week... Wozzeck -David Shengold ComedySportz Cares -Juliet Fletcher "Privacy Writes: Public Lives, Personal Letters" -Juliet Fletcher Fourth Of U LIE Rebel Party -Ainé Ardron-Doley PII Gallery | Stedman Gallery | And Then Thereâs · -Lori Hill Neal Barnard -Vance Lehmkuhl

July 3- 9, 2003

artpicks

"Martians and Motorcycles"

Hanging on a wall near the entrance of Hot Soup is a four-tiered flame split into thin jagged sheets of red, orange, yellow and white glass. It's appropriate decor considering the public access glass-blowing studio is as toasty as an oven preheated to 2,000 degrees. In order for the artists to form intricate glass designs, the studio's furnace reaches 2,080 degrees for blowing and a stifling 2,380 degrees for melting. "We base everything around our fuel bill," says manager Rebecca Britt. Most pieces are assembled in a matter of hours, since hot, moldable glass is not a medium you can walk away from like a canvas of oil paint. Britt's fascination with the process has kept her at Hot Soup for more than five years. "No one is a prodigy with a secret advantage over everyone else," Britt says. "I told my mom, ŒI've never loved something I am so bad at before.'" Glass prodigies may not exist, but the local artists presenting "Martians and Motorcycles" at the gallery come close. Their odd mix of colorful, bug-eyed aliens (Georgeann Greth) and sculpted, miniature motorcycles (Aaron Wiener and Steve Cothern) are a welcome departure from the typical Tupperware that novices create and provide ample inspiration for joining one of Hot Soup's famed crash courses in glass blowing. "It's not like anything else," Britt says. "Everyone starts off awkwardly."

“Martians and Motorcycles,” July 5-27, free, Hot Soup, 26 S. Strawberry St., 215-922-2332, www.hotsoupstudio.com.

—Andrew Parks