Sitting in the downtown Lafayette studio of glass artist Craig McCullen, I had the opportunity to see some of his best – and newest – work come together as he prepared for an upcoming exhibit at the Baton Rouge Gallery. Each piece is imaginative and whimsical and begging for its story to be told. For over 40 years, McCullen has been transforming panels of raw glass into beautiful illuminated designs that have enhanced homes, places of worship and businesses. 

The conversation quickly turns to a few of his favorite pieces. In one that he calls The Locals, a group of birds perched on a telephone line watch a festival downtown. A colorful cartoon-like depiction of a car on a tangle of highways catches my eye. McCullen talks about time spent traveling with a musician friend and how those memories carried over into some of his works like Houston Spaghetti, a playful representation of the city’s overpasses. 

As we get on the subject of stained glass, McCullen clarifies politely, “There’s actually very little stained glass, which is glass that is painted and then fired. Most of what we see is art glass really. I’m trying to promote it more as sculpture. I use antique glass made the way it was made in the 13th century. Most of the glass that I like is hand blown from Europe, like the very delicate, clear glass from Germany. England makes the best glass. American hand-blown glass is more wavy, not as transparent.” 

McCullen has been mesmerized by colored glass from an early age. Growing up in Baton Rouge, he hung out at the home of a friend whose father was a professor of art at LSU. “He was the reason there was a glass program at LSU – in fact the only glass program in the country at the time,” notes McCullen. “I liked the way the glass art was playful, colorful…irrelevant… expressive.” By 17 he was making designs with glass, and would go on to obtain a Masters in Fine Arts at LSU with a concentration in glass.

He moved to Lafayette in 1982 and opened Whoojoo Stained Glass Gallery (a nickname given to him by a close friend who shares the name Craig).

Working with glass is much like putting together a puzzle but instead of connecting like pieces, arranging different textures, colors and shapes of glass. McCullen explains that the process of making art sculptures begins with a sketch on paper. He cuts a pattern similar to that used in sewing and positions it on the sheet of glass, utilizing the space as best he can. Using a glass cutter a little longer than an ink pen, he creates a wave in the glass, like taking an ice pick to a block of ice. He will change his mind many times before coming up with the end design. “The glass dictates what to do,” says McCullen. “I design with the way glass breaks. Because it’s a wave, you can’t make just any piece you want. I don’t really know what it’s going to look like until I’m finished. Ninety-nine times out of 100, it turns out looking better than I thought it would.”  He then sawders intersecting pieces of lead. 

In the work area in the back of his studio, McCullen has some 300 different sheets of colored glass stored in vertical wood racks and organized by color and texture (transparent, opalescent and streaky). A large work table displays pieces of the glass, strips of lead and projects in the making. Pointing to two dishes of colored glass pieces he muses, “If this were my spice rack, these would be the pepper; they’re  bolder colors that I add at the end.” 

His latest exhibit “Midnight, the Other Time to Look at Glass,” includes glass encasements meant to be seen in many different light situations. “There are more ways to look at the glass than in the sunshine,” he assures. His five table-top sculptures, ranging from 12” high to 18” wide, are magical, like glass storybooks. Rig Dive portrays life under the oil rigs, a nod to his love of scuba diving. In Rabbit Hole, a small copper Jack rabbit is seen through ripple glass and a unique green reamy glass (with a water-like swirl).

“Everyone has an image when you say stained glass; most of those are of churches,” says McCullen. That said, some of his most beautiful work can be viewed in area churches:  Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Rayne, the adoration chapel at Sacred Heart Church in Broussard and the neighboring St. Francis Chapel at St. Cecilia, one of his favorites. “I used the strongest colors I could for the kids who would be seeing it,” he adds. After Hurricane Laura he was commissioned by First United Methodist Church in Lake Charles to repair a stained-glass window that had been blown out by the wind. Part of the window that remained was too high to be accessible, the rest was given to him as a bag of broken glass. It took six months to replicate the portion of the pane destroyed, painstaking matching body parts and colors.

His beautiful glass art has adorned homes as well, from Massachusetts to California. Because each light setting brings a different perspective to a piece, McCullen’s process involves visiting the client’s home. “I like to ask where the piece will be hung to get a feel for the space and a perspective from where it will be viewed. I also look to see what is outside the window where the art will be hung,” he explains.

Although best known for his glass work, McCullen has also painted portraits – mostly of his family. His watercolors, using India ink, have a poster-like quality to them, capturing the essence of what’s going on in the moment. The unique perspective, he says, comes from seeing things as shapes. “I work with a pattern of shapes, and the paintings are like that. Watercolor is a lot like stained glass in that it’s a transparent medium; it’s like painting on stained glass.”  

His sense of humor comes across in a small series he created during COVID, adding an unexpected but familiar element. Amused by people walking around with their face mask dangling from one ear, he painted paper masks and attached them to faces in predominantly black and white drawings.

While he also explores mixed media wall hangings, combining glass, clay, marbles, sea shells and other collected items, he’s happiest chasing the ever-changing streams of light to see the world through colored glass. Talking about a new project, of a large commissioned piece for an out-of-state client, he says what he likes about glasswork is, “It’s always a surprise – and a pleasant surprise.”