Reminiscent of the art nouveau period, the contemporary glass created by Tommie Pratt Rush has a fluid elegance. Her colorful vessels range from perfume vials to spacious vases and bowls.

Rush’s surfaces, both sandblasted and acid etched, have an opacity or frostiness that makes the work appear to be illuminated from within. She often wraps her vessels with cylindrical patterns that vary from botanical shapes to coils. The juxtaposition of the curvilinear shapes twining up the graceful vessels, often in contrasting colors, give her work its beauty and power.

“I enjoy making things that are used,” notes Rush. “We live in impersonal times, and handcrafted work personalizes our environment.” Rush received her BFA degree from the University of Tennessee and in 1995 she received an American Craft Fellow’s Choice Award.

Among the collections her work is included in are the Mobile Museum of Art, Tennessee State Museum, Bank of Nashville Corporation, McDonald’s Corporation, Kentucky Arts and Craft Foundation and Sheldon Art Museum and Sculpture Garden (Lincoln, NE). I in addition she has exhibited at such institutions as the Ringling Museum of Art and Indianapolis Museum of Art.