18/08/2026
Okay, let me explain.
For centuries, stained glass has been used to tell stories. It made saints, martyrs, kings and biblical figures monumental quite literally putting their stories into buildings meant to outlive them.
And I love that history. I love the craft, the symbolism, the scale and the incredible amount of knowledge that has been passed down through generations.
But the stories represented in stained glass were also shaped by the societies and institutions that commissioned it. And that meant a lot of human experience was barely represented at all.
Q***r people were there.
We loved. We desired. We built relationships. We hid. We found each other. We created families and communities. We struggled, celebrated, lost people, took care of each other and simply tried to live our lives.
And those stories are history too.
That is something I keep coming back to in my own work.
I use this centuries-old craft to tell stories about q***rness, intimacy, identity and vulnerability, but also, more broadly, about being human. Stories don't have to fit a certain norm to be worthy of being told.
For me, this isn't about erasing what came before.
It's about adding to it.
In my previous post, I shared that I want to shift the direction of my atelier, creating more space for art, experimentation and storytelling.
This is what I mean by that.
I want stories to become the starting point again. Q***r stories, personal stories, unexpected stories. Stories that move me, challenge me or simply deserve to exist in glass.
There are still so many stories to tell.
Let’s put them in stained glass.
X Sanderjan
