Annual Harvest Festival returns

As a group, artists tend to never be too bored for too long.

Take Judy Horvath. When the Henderson artist isn't in the mood to just paint, she can create wall pieces that combine her painted canvases with custom-made, curving glass pieces. And when she's in the mood for something completely different, there are always bracelets, pendants and other varieties of glass jewelry to fashion.

This weekend, Horvath, of Glass Elegance studio, will show her work at the Las Vegas Harvest Festival -- Original Art & Craft Show. The event, which runs from Friday through Sunday at Cashman Center, features artists and artisans from across the western United States and, for Horvath, at least offers an easy travel date in her year-round show schedule.

Horvath and her husband, John -- he does the matting, framing and glass-cutting for his wife's pieces -- moved to Henderson from Seattle almost six years ago.

"I've always loved art," Horvath says, whether it was the drawing she did as a child, the painting she took up in adulthood or, since the early '80s, using glass as an artistic medium.

At first, Horvath's work in glass was primarily creating custom-made glass window pieces for homes and businesses. Then, in the mid-'80s, after attending the Pilchuck Glass School -- founded by Dale Chihuly -- Horvath began to apply her glass-working techniques to artistic wall pieces fashioned from intricately cut glass arranged in abstract patterns.

Today, her work also includes wall pieces created by mounting fused glass onto painted canvases and custom jewelry using dichroic glass -- made by applying numerous thin layers of metal oxides to the surface of glass in a vacuum to create vibrant colors -- and Swarovski crystal.

Horvath's Web site (www.judyhorvath.com) features examples of her work, which also is shown in galleries in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Santa Fe, N.M. Here, Horvath and her husband show their work out of their home by appointment.

Horvath enjoys the opportunity to use glass in so many ways.

"There are times I'm in the mood to paint and feel I just have to paint, and there are times I just want to work on wall pieces," she says. "And, sometimes, I feel like jewelry and it's nice to have so many different (outlets)."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.