Glass became Manuel’s primary medium for translating these experiences into tangible form. She describes the work as both meditative and demanding: a process that mirrors the slow beauty of the landscapes around her. Her feathers, landscapes, and sculptural works capture fleeting impressions of place: the arc of a fox’s movement across snow, the sudden appearance of ptarmigan on a ridge, or the delicate unfolding of alpine flora. Each piece distills the sense of awe and intimate observation that characterizes her life outdoors.
Her Estonian heritage also informs her aesthetic decisions, infusing her work with an Her life experience in the Newfoundland’s wilderness and her ancestral cultural traditions, create a layered visual language that grounds her work in both personal lineage and geographic specificity.
Manuel approaches glass with an understanding of its dual nature: its seeming fragility and its remarkable strength. She embraces the slow, deliberate pace required by kiln-formed glass, where each stage of cutting, placing, fusing, shaping, demands patience and presence. The medium’s responsiveness to light, heat, and time allows her to explore themes of impermanence, resilience, and the complex interdependence of ecosystems. The translucency and luminosity of glass also echo the atmospheric qualities of the environments that inspire her, capturing mist, ice, and shifting light in subtle visual gestures.
Her practice continues to evolve as she expands her technical repertoire and refines her ability to evoke emotion through colour and form. Whether producing intricate feathers or expansive landscape panels, and life size installations, Manuel remains committed to honouring the natural world through work that invites viewers into a contemplative encounter with place.
Manuel’s pieces have become widely recognized within Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond, resonating with collectors who are drawn to the clarity of her vision and her ability to translate wilderness experiences into compelling visual narratives. Her work is celebrated for its sensitivity, craftsmanship, and the reverence it shows for the ecosystems she inhabits.
Within The Power of Objects, Manuel’s glass works exemplify how crafted objects can hold sensory memory and emotional truth. Her forms mirror the slow beauty of Gros Morne’s ancient landscapes, demonstrating how glass can capture the essence of light, movement, and lived experience. Through her attentive engagement with nature and material, Manuel reveals the capacity of craft objects to bear witness to landscapes, to moments, and to the quiet resilience that defines both the natural world and the human spirit.
