Flying

This glass mural is one of 14 commissioned from British artist Martin Donlin for the concourses at Indianapolis International Airport. The piece highlights the freeing experience of flying by showing a mass of human figures rising up and into the air.  It is located on Concourse B and requires a boarding pass in order to view it.

Inspirations for Donlin’s pieces were drawn from poems commissioned by local writers in Indianapolis; also inspirational were thoughts of welcome, home, warmth and safety to dreams of adventure, excitement, far off places and the future. Some of the windows have text acid-etched into the surface of the glass while others are based on references to the local landscape at different times of the day and year. The commission is one of the world’s largest stained glass projects, at a total of over 500 square meters; it includes 14 windows of differing sizes with 114 sealed units and 2,385 individual hand made panes of antique glass.

Martin Donlin lives on the coast in southern England and specializes in architectural-scale works in glass. He works in a wide variety of materials including mouth-blown glass, screen-printed ceramic melting colors, polished glass, and acid etching.  He has executed numerous projects in the UK, Europe, and the U.S.