Fredericksburg glass artist Irene Ultee is the February Artist of the Month at the Bay School Community Arts Center in Mathews.

An attorney by profession, Ultee said in a release that she would have been happier as a full-time artist. While practicing law, she “became obsessed with glass” 20 years ago and began visiting various places including North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, New York and California, where she took classes by renowned artists.

She then had a studio built in her home and filled it with glassmaking equipment.

Ultee has spent the last few years creating brightly colored glass vessels, but she also makes jewelry, bowls, votives, and trays “encapsulating my life’s experiences with the design, interests and the environment I have enjoyed.”

Those life experiences include everything from spending time observing tulips, hyacinths and other spring flowers in the Netherlands to walking through the markets of Sorrento in Italy, with their “array of colors so vibran...