These works are recent examples of an ongoing exploration, over a period of 30+ years, of the vessel in the role of sacred & mundane object. Art grants have taken me to many world museums, including the Ashmoleum, Glyptotek, Louvre, and Uffizi. Archeological sites, churches, temples and sacred geographical sites from personal travels have also provided many moments of profound creative insight. Some of my diverse artistic influences have been historical and contemporary still life painters, such as Morandi and Chardin; abstract painters Diebenkorn and Gorky; the contemplative work of Anish Kapoor and Agnes Martin. Influential arts and crafts have been the ceramics of the southwest Sinagua Indians; Greek and Roman ceramics; and Hindu and Buddhist sculpture. Other personal discoveries have illuminated the play of space, light and form in surprising ways, revealing new understandings and adding to the creative process. My creative work emerges from a contemplative interaction with nature and life.

"The modern French philosopher Bachelard wrote extensively about intimate spaces, transcendence and humanness within the recesses of the everyday." … "Her [Cullen's] works combine the timeless and iconic with the tactile and sensuous. Each painting seemingly references a history of ideas through a single object and creates a uniquely sacred space for imaginative contemplation."

- Saara Liinamaa, "Teresa Cullen: Form and Emptiness"