LINCOLNVILLE — Stained glass artist Janet Redfield ahs created two large windows for the new Augusta Judicial Center, which will open to the public this month. The windows depict a river with its tributaries flowing to the sea where it meets the incoming tide. Colorful fused glass circles represent the towns on the waterway.

The larger window is located at the end of the second floor corridor, and the river meeting the sea window is below it on the first floor. Both stained glass windows were installed in frames made by Matthew Berta, a Rockport cabinetmaker, who assisted in the installation. The window stands 13 feet tall and seven feet wide and has a separate four-foot section on the first floor. 

Redfield, who works from her studio in Lincolnville, was selected to create these windows for the people of Maine with funding through the state's Percent for Art program. She proposed her river idea last May to a committee from the Judicial Center, and was chosen, along with three other artists, to design work for the new building.

Construction is finishing up this month on the Maine Judicial Center, which includes Superior Court, District Court, criminal and family courts and administrative offices.

This commission is the latest of more than 25 works in stained glass created by Redfield in public buildings, including Camden Hills Regional High School, Rockland's Ferry Terminal, and the University of Maine's Hutchinson Center in Belfast. She is currently at work on several residential window projects.

What inspires Redifeld?

“Color, light, and the amazing designs in nature, from the intricate shapes of microscopic plankton to the starry night sky,” she said.

"The first time I ever picked up a glass cutter and cut a piece of glass, and it broke in exactly the place I had cut, it felt like some amazing magical event had just happened,” she said. “Seven bazillion pieces of cut glass later, it doesn't feel quite that extraordinary, but I still get a thrill.”

She has been working with stained glass since 1973.

"I moved to Cape Rosier in 1974 and had my workshop in a second floor bedroom with a bit of a view of Penobscot Bay out the window,” she said. “I started out making small stained glass planters and mirrors for craft stores all over the country, and transitioned into designing one of a kind windows for homes and businesses."

Redfield is inspired by artists Dale Chihuly, Vincent Van Gogh, her friend Kathleen Florance, Vermeer, “and too many more to list, not to mention, spell correctly.”