“Art is a Verb - an act of making pieces of showing and creating. I sell it as a noun - a piece of art".” - Mark Sudduth
Mark Sudduth is a distinguished glass artist based in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He is from Dover, Ohio and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Glass, with a minor in Drawing, from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1983. He was a Teacher’s Assistant at the Cleveland Institute of Art for over ten years and also taught for one semester. Since 1987 he has maintained a private studio downtown Cleveland, specializing in hand-blown and sculptural glassworks. He purchased adjacent buildings to his studio to offer graduating Cleveland Institute of Art students a complete art studio. He has supported 12 art graduates over the years. Further, it is very impression to learn that not only does he create amazing glassworks, but he has also created and built all of the glass making machinery in his studio, including his 900 degree furnaces (which takes several days to cool), his cooling units., and some of his tools.
“Being an artist is more than creating art - it’s creating and building your entire art studio space and running a business.” - Mark Sudduth
His studio is gorgeous, and available to visit when he’s in town in between traveling the country showing his breathtaking glass pieces. The best way to tour his studio is to contact his cell phone at 216-401-0680. In addition to the Line Series and other larger glass pieces, he also sells sculptures in the shapes of African ceremonial anklets, cuffs, halos, bowls and vases as well as smaller pieces such as colorful drinking glasses. You can also follow him on Facebook at Mark Sudduth, or on Instagram at SudduthGlass to know when and where he is showing his art. His website, which includes videos, is www.sudduthglass.com.
“Art is how you live. How you see things.” - Mark Sudduth
Our CWR Gallery has pieces from his “Line Series”. This series was loosely based on his appreciation for African masks. He studied African Art a lot during his time at Cleveland Institute of Art. The white lines on the bowls and vases in CWR’s gallery mirror the lines on an African mask. Further, the circles represent the holes from African masks that are used to hold raffia grasses. Creating the white lines onto glass is a very difficult process including using a hot white glass within a steel rod to shape it into orderly and neat white lines. He likes that this process is evident of handmade glass.
When creating glass, he focuses on depth, transparency, refraction - which is why some of his glasswork is thicker than other homemade pieces. You can see the thickness in the Line Series Bowls and Vases in our gallery. After he hand blows glass, he forms the shape and then cools the piece. Once cooled, it is cut, polished, engraved, and/or highlighted with various tools.
Throughout his career, Sudduth has received numerous accolades, including the Excellence in Contemporary Art Award and multiple Best of Show honors. His work has been exhibited nationally and is part of several permanent collections, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art. His piece, Inside-Out II, was created in 1986 and is often on display.
In addition to his artistic endeavors, Sudduth has contributed to the art community as a juror for various exhibitions and as an instructor and technical assistant in glass at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He also served as the manager and coordinator of the Hot Glass Studio at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.
