ARTISTS STATEMENT
Kevin Kutch and Mary Ellen Buxton

Kevin Kutch and Mary Ellen Buxton's partnership began at Metropolitan State Collage in Denver, where Kevin received his BA in sculpture in 1977 and Mary Ellen hers in Printmaking and Art Education in 1976. By 1978 they had married but both chose to pursue separate careers in the arts.
As manager of Blake St. Glass, the Denver studio of artists Kit Karbler and Michael David, Kevin directed his sculptural skills toward mastering cold-glass technology and learning glassblowing. His sculptures combining glass, cold-glass technology and metals were displayed in a number of regional exhibits. Mary Ellen went on to employ her artistic abilities as a teaching artist by developing and implementing an arts curriculum in the Adams County #12 School District Alternative school for disenfranchised students. Meanwhile, she indulged her interests in handmade paper as a print form, weaving and wearable wool felt. Her multi-media wall relief's combining these elements saw considerable regional and national exposure.
The Buxton-Kutches moved from Colorado to New York City in 1991, when Kevin accepted an invitation from the New York Experimental Glass Workshop (now Urban Glass) to be its new studio director. He worked there with some of the world's leading glass artists - Dale Chihuly, Richard Marquis, Lino Tagliapietra, Dante Marioni and Bertil VaRien among them - and oversaw NYEGW's move to it's new Brooklyn home. His responsibilities included training scheduling personnel and managing the 17,000sq/ft. open-door facility as well as organizing special events and public demonstrations with the artists. Mary Ellen continued her teaching at Parsons School of Design, Horizons Craft Program, Brookfield Craft Center and the New York Public Schools' Manhattan Village Academy while managing the Flickinger Glassworks; a custom glass bending (slumping) firm in Brooklyn.
The ultimate partnership was cemented in May of 1994, when Kevin and Mary Ellen proudly opened a studio of their own, joining other pioneering young artists along the decaying Red Hook waterfront of Brooklyn. Here, at the studio, they design and blow thick-walled, multi colored, multiple-bubbled functional glass sculpture.
Theirs is essentially a liquid medium and excellent one for discovery. Through it artist and viewer alike can enjoy exploring the all-too-human fascination with light and color. With deceptively simple designs, Kevin and Mary Ellen bend light and manipulate perception in fine glass sculpture. Their works are featured in national galleries, exhibitions and private and public collections.

QUESTION? -
Ask the Gallery


A Proud Member of FineCraftNetwork.com
visit the gallery

+ FINE CRAFT + STUDIO FURNITURE + FINE ART +
e-mail: director@functionart.com | phone: 312.243.2780