Lyn Godley

Lyn Godley began her career in Fine Arts, then spent 30 years working as a designer, bringing form and beauty to functional objects. Her work has crossed the borders of interiors, product, furniture, lighting, and jewelry. Her designs, done both individually and as partner of Godley-Schwan (1984-1998) with the late Lloyd Schwan, have been exhibited internationally. The Crinkle Lamp, the last piece designed jointly by Godley-Schwan, was accepted into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998. Their work is also in numerous public and private collections. Of all of her design work, it is lighting that captured her soul and on which she has focused for the last twenty-five years. From chandeliers to full-scale illuminated evening gowns she has explored a wide range of light sources and effects. NYC’s Jewish Museum commissioned Lyn in 2003 to produce an 81-lamp menorah. In 2008 she designed a permanent installation of 7,100 programmable LEDs at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Pennsylvania that continually “draws in light” across the center’s facade. It was through lighting that she found her way back to art, in the form of drawings threaded with fiber optics. It has been this body of work, merging digital printing, pastel drawing, and fiber optics that led her to research the healing abilities of particular light wavelengths and nature-base imagery which has driven much of her fiber optic work. She is also regularly chosen for public art projects that explore the intersection of Light and Art in public spaces, most recently the Percent for Art commission for the Public Art at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia set to install in late Fall 2015. In addition to her studio work, she is an Associate Professor of Industrial Design at Philadelphia University.