THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409080210
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 36 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET MARCHUK
CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
She stands, sweating, in front of a 2,000-degree furnace for sometimes hours at a time while balancing a five-foot-long, five-pound metal pipe to her lips. At the end of this tube is an equally heavy glob of molten glass.
Not only is she physically challenged but also mentally tested. One false breath and it could all be over.
``For me the art of glass blowing is trying to keep in balance the natural tendency of glass to do its own thing and my control over it in creating a piece,'' explains Kellie Kulton.
A collection of some of the 29-year-old artist's glass work as well as a series of her lithographs and prints is on exhibit at Nalani Designs in Duck until Sept. 12.
An Outer Banks resident since 1991, Kulton spent some of her youth growing up in Germany. She remembers as a child seeing glass being blown, and it fascinated her. Her family eventually relocated back to Maryland, then Virginia. While working toward a fine arts degree at Virginia Commonwealth University, she was given the opportunity to explore the child-like wonder and curiosity she still had for glass. She registered for a class in glass blowing.
``I remember the instructor told the class during the first session that we would either love it or never want to do it again. After my first try, I was hooked.''
There seems to be something about the intensity of the heat that attracts Kulton, like a moth to light. At college, she slipped into the glass studio when no one was working there. The furnace was always burning. She would just sit or sometimes bring her lunch and eat there. She liked the feel of the warmth and the sound of the furnace.
There is a grace and fluidity to Kulton's glass pieces. Most of her hand-blown glasswork can be considered vessels or containers. She employs an expressionistic style using traditional vessel forms. Some viewers have described her work as erotic. Kulton has difficulty accepting that description. Perhaps sensuous is a better term as her work exudes an organic elegance, as if she allowed the natural unfolding of the hot glass. She says that a sculptor, a friend of her instructor, reviewed her art work - both blown glass and her paintings. His response was, ``With glass you dance, with your paintings you explode.''
If any one word could begin to describe her oil paintings, Kulton suggests the word ``big.''
``I like big,'' she says, ``and the human form.'' Her large human forms are easy to spot in the Caribbean-themed mural that covers the outside wall of the Rundown Cafe in Kitty Hawk. She enjoyed working on that project - not only was it large but also it was outside. Working in the intense light and heat of the sun seemed to encourage her creative juices. Another restaurant, Tortuga's Lie, displays in its dining room a large canvas of birds she painted. Her style of illustration also graces the cover of this year's 1994 ``The Restaurant Guide to the Outer Banks.''
Although she would like to continue to blow glass, there is only one drawback. There is no facility to do it here on the Outer Banks. To create her own studio would be financially prohibitive, so she is currently making plans to attend the New York Experimental Glass Workshop in Brooklyn for the winter. She says the cold winter months are the best time to blow glass. Why? Well, after standing in front of a furnace for a few hours in long sleeves, long pants, closed shoes, goggles, sometimes gloves and perhaps a head covering, it feels exhilarating to step outside into the freezing weather.
Not many people know that glassmaking was America's first industry. Until the late 1950s, nearly everything made of glass was functional. Glassmaking history then took a dramatic departure as artists began to experiment with the medium. They paid little attention to function or tradition, but were more interested in glass as a sculptural medium. A look at what artists like Kellie Kulton are doing today in studios throughout the country and the world certainly gives some indication how they are defining the magic of glassblowing. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
``For me the art of glass blowing is trying to keep in balance the
natural tendency of glass to do its own thing and my control over it
in creating a piece,'' says artist Kellie Kulton.
by CNB