AACG - Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass

Kathleen Mulcahy

Artist Statement:

I have always been inspired by nature, whether I’m on a river or near the vastness of the ocean waters. I’m not imitating nature but trying to pause a moment, a millisecond of thought, and go deeply into the image through specific strategies using glass! My musings take on a sense of soul washings, clearing and cleansing. I allow a kind of sound in my mind to emanate from the work.

Water is becoming a delicate fast depleting resource.I want my work to literally shine a light on water. Water contains the potential of giving of life with many layers of meaning impacting our lives.

More recently I spent a short time in the boundary waters in Minnesota. I passed through a number of very lush water lily areas. I note here that there is a 70% decline in birds. I have this feeling that as I live, there is a steep decline of natural resources, water being one. I am painfully aware of this decline in the richness of water that was/is thoroughly healthy, lush, vibrant.
I think there is a collision in my work between beauty, earth’s resources, and politics. My new work titled Ми українці (translation: We Are Ukrainian), for example, calls into question our relationship to humanity, to each other. There is certainly a clash of beauty and humanness. Who are we in these crushing moments where one nation is transgressing another. Who are we when we can’t live in peace.

I saw those water lilies in my mind’s eye as bright yellow with a deep blue center which happens to be the national colors of Ukraine. Then I understood the dream. I’m thinking of the commonness or the connectedness of people throughout the world. That is exactly what Ron and I followed in our path to create the glass center. Even on this small scale of a glass center in a community, we made a difference in the lives of people who came to us. Of course, it made a beautiful difference in our own lives as well.

I believe all my work reminds us of that beauty which is fast dissolving. Glass in its purity can speak to the heart of the matter and essentially for me it is a fine intoxication.

About Kathleen Mulcahy

Kathleen Mulcahy is an award-winning Pittsburgh-based glass artist and co-founder of Pittsburgh Glass Center whose work captures fleeting, emotional moments in nature—especially water—through luminous, sculptural glass. She grew up near the Jersey shore where walking the coastline in winter made her fall in love with the sea. Upon seeing molten glass being gathered from the furnace like honey she was immediately drawn to its malleability and its beauty. Inspired by her early connection to the sea and the transformative encounter with molten glass, she creates pieces that balance beauty with urgency, reflecting on environmental fragility, human connection, and global tensions.

Her glass drop installations incorporate bent and etched plate glass on patinaed or textured steel. As an avid kayaker, she experienced a moment that changed the direction of her art. A storm came upon the river suddenly. In its wake it left her with a moment of pure joy, of wonder, that she works to recreate in her drop installations. Her inspiration, drawn from the natural world – water and rivers, often titled after excerpts from poems exploring the boundaries and freedoms that affect relationships; people to people and people to nature. Nature is the reflection point of her work. Kathleen pushes the limits of the medium, merging sculpture with craft to create masterful works in glass and metal.

Mulcahy received a Masters of Fine Arts in glass sculpture and three-dimensional design from Alfred University. Afterwards, she directed glass studio programs at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, then went on to develop the Pittsburgh Glass Center, one of the premier public access glass studios in the nation. During this time, her own work – installation pieces, cast glass, and blown glass objects – evolved into unique and poignant statements.

Kathleen received Fellowship Awards from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts. the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Creative Glass Center of America. She received The Lusk Memorial Award through the Fulbright Foundation, The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. In 1992, she was named Artist of the Year by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Pennsylvania Artist of the Year by Governor Corbett in 2013. Her works are in many public and private collections including the American Craft Museum, The Corning Museum of Glass, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Renwick Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution and The Westmoreland Museum of Art. In 1997, she was selected as Fellow of and Artist in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. 

Kathleen currently has a retrospective exhibition, A Fine Intoxication: Gathering Glass, at Pittsburgh Glass Center through July 31, 2026. The exhibition documents her history and career with works made from 2001 to the present. Works from Kathleen's late husband and PGC co-founder, Ron Desmett, also are included in the exhibition.

Click here for an artist's resume.

Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, PA, for providing the Artist of the Month.