In My Studio: Where Multi-Disciplinary Artist Katherine Rutecki Makes Glass Bubbles & Ghastly Ghoststicks

Specialising in glass sculpture, but also proficient with bronze and cast iron, Katherine Rutecki’s studio next to Gloria on Ponsonby Rd provides both solitude and creativity.

Being a multi-hyphenate has become more than an idea of late. It’s the new way of working for many. At a time when more and more recognition is being given to having a variety of strings to your bow, multi-disciplinary artist Katherine Rutecki is way ahead of the pack. Since graduating from art school in 2007, she has honed her skills across a range of disciplines as an artist and teacher.

Glass sculpture is her speciality, but she also works in both bronze and cast iron, as well as drawing and painting, and performance art. In 2018 she received her Master of Fine Art in Glass from Southern Illinois University, she has a BFA in sculpture from the School of Art and Design at Alfred University, New York, and she has been involved in several international group exhibitions, taking place at venues such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Museum of Glass Art in Denmark, and solo exhibitions in Seattle, Washington, and Auckland, New Zealand.

Her work is in public collections in New Zealand and internationally, and she has also taught widely, both through workshops and at university level. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Katherine moved to New Zealand in 2008 at the age of 22. She welcomes Viva into her Ponsonby studio.

What is it about your work that gets you excited?

I love geeking out on different processes! My background is mostly in glass, I’ve been a glassmaker for almost 20 years. My focus is mostly on lost wax casting in both glass and metals, though I incorporate a lot of processes and materials in my work. It’s exciting when I know enough to improvise. I’ve discovered that you learn so much more in the process of doing.

Describe your studio and how it inspires you.

I’ve been in my studio in Ponsonby Rd at the back of Gloria since mid-2023. I enjoy the solitude but I also like its proximity to other artists. That drives me. Who wouldn’t want to be working down the hall from creative genius Kristine Crabb? I have a show coming up in early 2025 at Public Record, which is just down the street. When I need to use a kiln or machinery I don’t have at my studio, I reach out to friends Simon Lewis Wards and Devyn Ormsby, and Isaac Katzoff and Stephen Bradbourne at Monmouth Glass. I fire my ceramics mostly at Auckland Studio Potters. I also have a mini metals furnace that I can take on the road, which is really fun.

What does your making process involve?

The process of sculpting, the multitude of potential approaches, the playfulness of constructing a form. A lot of my art is bound up in me processing complex emotions and ideas. I go through all the artmaking processes to arrive at an understanding of the essential idea. This includes work before or after the making, listening to others or reading and making personal connections to a conveyed feeling.

What has your collaboration with Katrina Kerr brought to your work?

In addition to my practice, I collaborate with Katrina Kerr as Ghastly Studios. Ghastly is an intersection where Kat and I find ourselves on the same wavelength. Kat is an interior designer and antiques dealer and we like to get together and shoot around ideas. It’s as if we are of the same mind about decorative objects, we get excited about the same stuff. So Ghastly is easy. The work is extremely labour intensive, but making this work is fun — playing with colours and patterns in weird, unusual ways, creating these wildly large candelabras. I don’t have to overthink things; in opposition to my personal work, it isn’t burdened by emotion. I am influenced by Ghastly, too.

I started my own candlesticks in a series of works I call Squeezed and Pinched which draws on my interest in pre-modern art and the conversation around art and craft. The work in this series is sculptures of objects that I’ve executed in a variety of mediums. So far I have used glass, bronze and porcelain and aluminium. They are an exercise in touch, built of bits of warm wax or soft porcelain, all constructed with squeezes, pinches and smooshing of thumbs and fingertips. Perhaps an over-exaggeration of “handmade”, they are a visual of time spent, a theme that I also explore in my 2016 drawing performance, _________work, about invisible and emotional labour.

Have you had a setback that you learned from?

My life was going in a direction that wasn’t my own for a long time. I’m still working out what my path is. It’s been tough but I’m excited about each little gain.

Did you seriously consider giving up at any point?

Have you ever had a business mentor?

No, but plenty of art and craft mentors and teachers. That’s the thing about becoming an artist, sometimes that means being closed off from the artistry of economics or business thinking. I’m at a place now where I recognise I would benefit from that sort of mentorship … any takers?

Biggest life lesson?

I’ve been afraid of asking for help in the past. I still struggle with it, so my biggest life lesson is that asking for help, asking for advice is okay, which leads me to your next question:

What self-care strategies do you have in your life?

Community. Accepting that people really do love and care for you.

Any tips for other creatives wanting to launch their own business?

Don’t undersell yourself. And respect the energy and momentum of the thing you are working on. If you don’t do that there is a tendency for it to bite you back sometime, somehow.

Who inspires you?

My 12-year-old daughter, Frankie June. Being a parent has given me more of an understanding and urgency in life and art.

Have there been any cultural challenges in your journey to find your place as an artist in New Zealand?

I’ve been here for over a decade and I haven’t quite found my foothold. I sort of move around the outside of the glass community in Aotearoa, though I remain connected with the international glass scene. I have got back into ceramics in the past five years and have found a real love for the wood-firing community here. I love burning stuff!

Has moving to New Zealand influenced you as an artist?

I went back to the States for three years in 2015 to get my MFA in glass sculpture. This was a major period of growth for me as an artist. It was while I was away that I discovered the influence New Zealand has had on how I think as an artist and the structure of my artwork. I developed graphic motifs that were completely new to my practice. I was able to spend time reflecting on where I’ve been, who I’ve become, what’s important to me. I’m grateful for that time away as it’s difficult to have perspective on your work when you’re trying to make rent.

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