Therese Lahaie studied fine art and biology at Emmanuel College in Boston, in preparation for a career in medical illustration. During her junior year abroad in London, however, she was so moved by the medieval stained glass windows in the cathedrals of Europe that she reconsidered her career as an anatomist/ illustrator. As soon as she graduated from Emmanuel, she went up the street to the Massachusetts College of Art to study glass sculpture and has never looked back.

After moving to the Bay Area in 1987 her work became dominated by images related to navigation. For this series, she fabricated a series of illuminated viewer-activated rocking “buoy” sculptures. A sensor inside the sculpture detects the viewer and triggers a vigorous rocking and spinning movement.

In preparation for an exhibition at the M.I.T. Museum in Boston, titled “Glass, Linking Art and Science,” she began synthesizing her work with glass and the kinetic movement inspired by the buoy sculptures. In the series titled “Breathing Lessons,” light is projected through slowly moving glass. The shadows cast by the glass expand and contract rhythmically, drifting in and out of focus as the glass is pushed and released by a low rpm motor.

Some of Therese Lahaie’s recent career accomplishments include a 2006/08 Djerassi Resident Artist Fellowship; and a second solo show at Heller Gallery, NYC. In the fall of 2007, in an exhibition titled “Area: Blurring the Boundaries,” she was resident artist at the California State University, Sacramento University Library Gallery. The City of Emeryville aquired a kinetic work that is now installed in the lobby of City Hall. In 2008 she completed an architectural installation of two large scale works for the lobby of 650 Townsend Street, in San Francisco, California and for the Hyatt Hotel in Seattle WA and she launches into 2009 with a solo show at Dolby Chadwick gallery in San Francisco, CA.