Red Dot Project

Cleveland Heights artist Rene Culler

Glassblowers are sometimes thought of as the hotdogs of the art world, acting and reacting quickly to coax molten glass into a thing of beauty before temperatures dip or the bubble bursts.

Cleveland Heights artist Rene Culler knows the process well and uses it, but for her the blowpipe is sometimes just part of the story.

“I like to blow glass, but for me it happens too fast,” says Culler. So some of her work involves stacking blown-glass objects into architectonic sculptures that she then fuses together in a kiln.

Architecture, Byzantine art, textiles and tile traditions are among things that inspire Culler, whose work has been shown at the Renwick Gallery of American Art, part of the Smithsonian Institution; the Corning Museum of Glass; the May Show, formerly a staple exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art; and numerous galleries across the United States. Culler, who also teaches in workshops and university art departments, has been a Red Dot Project member since 2006.

A 1992 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, Culler earned her master’s degree two years later at Kent State University. She’s attracted by color and dimension, by history and legend, but even as a kid she noticed the one quality that made glass special. “I think it’s the way glass uses light,” she says. “Painters try to simulate light, but if you make glass you can actual use light as part of your palette.” Culler also is drawn to the philosophical idea of light as wisdom.

These days her two main bodies of work are the sculptural series that involve blown glass, and flat pieces for the wall. The sculptures – often looking like totems built from color-infused cups — tend to be work well in galleries. The flat works, full of color and the artist’s sense of connection to drawing and painting, have attracted commissions in businesses and among private collectors.

Lake Effect (detail)

Culler’s gallery work allows her to follow her own interests and ideas, but commissions are satisfying in other ways. For one thing, they help fund the gallery glass. But in addition, she says, the new parameters inherent in a commission often lead her to creative places she wouldn’t go on her own.

When someone commissions work, Culler has a new criteria to consider, including the space, the interests of the buyer and sometimes the kind of work that’s done in business settings. She did work for a surgery center, for instance, where the buyers knew that the use of red in her glass would conjure unsettling thoughts of blood. The people who want original work also tend to be thoughtful and intelligent, she says. “They want something that’s meaningful, that they can relate to that’s creative in their space instead of just buying the same old Monet print.”

Culler understands the power of art to inspire, to transform a space or elevate a ritual. One of her favorite objects, she says, is a ceramic coffee mug made by friend and studio-space partner Susan Gallagher. She uses it every Sunday. “It kind of undulates, it’s kind of Gaudi-esque,” she says. “I have some nice prints and photos, but I just really love that cup.”