R. Joseph Culley (b.1963)
Duck Weed Glow (2021) & Conversation of the Ripples (2021)
Materials: Chalk pastel, 20" x 26" and 20" x 25.5"
Location: Barberton Joint Center for Excellence, main hallway
About the Art
Joe Culley masterfully captures fleeting moments in Northeast Ohio’s ever-changing landscape. Working in chalk pastel, a medium that requires precision, he has little room for revision. Each deliberate mark reflects his deep connection between hand, eye, and perception. While Culley references photographs in his process, his final works transcend mere representation, revealing the artist’s own interpretations and decisions in ways that photography alone cannot.
In Duck Weed Glow, Culley transforms an often-overlooked natural element into a luminous focal point. Duckweed, a floating aquatic plant, plays a complex ecological role, providing nourishment and shelter for wildlife while sometimes disrupting aquatic ecosystems. Here, instead of evoking unease, the artist imbues its frosted green surface with an almost otherworldly glow. The interplay of shadow and light adds to the composition’s intrigue: the drowned trees on the left cast shadows further left, while ambiguous dark patches in the foreground invite the viewer to question whether they are additional shadows or open water. A spindly tree in the foreground draws the eye deeper into the scene, where cattails bloom under expansive cumulus clouds. The painting offers a quiet moment of late-summer reflection, encouraging us to pause and truly see.
In Conversation of the Ripples, Culley shifts focus from landscape to the ephemeral dance of water, light, and reflection. This piece is a study in movement, where ripples on the pond’s surface interact in a delicate exchange. There are no solid forms, only the shifting reflections of trees, plants, and fading sunlight. The composition’s center becomes a meeting place where gentle waves merge and dissolve into a leafy reflection on the right.
Culley’s title suggests a dialogue between light and shadow, movement and stillness, surface and depth. Given his background as a tabla player, the rhythmic interplay of water and reflection may also resonate with his musical practice, where call-and-response phrasing is central to Indian classical music. Both in art and in music, Culley invites us to experience the moment, to observe the fluidity of nature, and to find harmony in the impermanent.
Possibilities (2021)
Materials: Oil on canvas, 54” x 72”
Location: Juve Family Behavioral Health Pavilion, Second Floor Waiting Room
About the Art
In Possibilities, Joe Culley captures a moment of quiet reflection, immersing the viewer in the interplay of light, color, and atmosphere. This large-scale painting began as a sketch, an initial response to the vibrational qualities of a specific time and place in nature. By positioning the horizon line low on the canvas, Culley allows the sky to dominate, the cool and shifting cloud patterns contrasting with the warm and grounding tones of the fields below. The sweeping composition evokes a sense of openness, inviting contemplation.
Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, this work reflects the artist’s personal journey during a time of global uncertainty. As someone managing bipolar type-2 disorder, Culley turned to his art as a means of processing and responding to the emotional and psychological challenges of that period. His approach alternates between representational and abstract yet always remains deeply rooted in natural forms. What might at first seem a simple composition reveals itself to be a carefully balanced structure: a dark, undulating horizon line, a luminous yellow-green expanse, and the striking diagonal of a plowed field stretching across the canvas beneath a dynamic sky. Like the still-lifes of Italian surrealist Giorgio Morandi, Culley’s work is intended to evoke a meditative calm.
Culley selects his titles as part of his creative process, discovering meaning along the way. Possibilities reflects his belief that both landscapes and music, particularly the rhythms of the tabla, which he has played for decades, offer frameworks for improvisation and exploration. Just as a musician responds to tempo and tone, Culley responds to the landscape before him, allowing intuition to guide his work. The resulting painting, much like an improvised melody, invites the viewer to pause, reflect, and consider what lies ahead.
Trimurti (2021)
Materials: Chalk pastel, 20.5" x 31”
Location: Juve Family Behavioral Health Pavilion, Second Floor, North Waiting Room
About the Art
"Nature is my church," asserts Joe Culley, whose landscapes in Summa’s Behavioral Health Pavilion (including Trimurti, Floating Clouds, and Glow) were all created during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Trimurti references the Hindu trinity of gods and may carry spiritual overtones, all three works reflect the artist’s deep commitment to observation and his disciplined, expressive mark-making. Each piece invites reflection on themes of impermanence, perception, and meaning.
In Trimurti, Culley captures the paradox of sunset clouds: those higher in the sky still glow with the sun’s fading brilliance, while those near the horizon have already darkened. The interplay of color and angular shapes in the sky contrasts with the calmer shoreline below, reinforcing a dynamic balance between movement and stillness, light and shadow.
Floating Clouds (2021)
Materials: Chalk pastel, 20.5" x 31”
Location: Juve Family Behavioral Health Pavilion, Second Floor, North Waiting Room
In Floating Clouds, every shape and motion in the sky finds its reflection in the water below. And yet, the water reveals details absent from the sky above. The tangled upper branches of a tree, for instance, appear only in reflection, suggesting elements beyond what is directly depicted. The "floating" clouds of the title exist only as mirrored forms, raising questions about where we search for truth and how we define what is real. Through this subtle yet deliberate visual play, Culley challenges our assumptions about perception and reality.
Glow (2021)
Materials: Chalk pastel, 20.5” x 31”
Location: Juve Family Behavioral Health Pavilion, Second Floor, North Waiting Room
At first glance, Glow appears to be an impenetrable wall of cattails. But rather than blocking entry, these vertical forms serve as visual devices that push the viewer’s eye beyond them, guiding attention toward the sun’s reflection on the pond’s surface. The tension between foreground and background, between obstruction and invitation, adds to the richness of the composition.
Rendered in the demanding medium of chalk pastel, all three works demonstrate Culley’s swift, confident gestures and his ability to capture the natural world’s interplay of light, movement, and color. These pieces are intentionally grouped in a contemplative space, encouraging reflection and introspection.
Culley’s artistic sensibilities have been shaped by both personal experiences and influential mentors. He recalls long walks with his father, Robert W. Culley, in nearby Virginia Kendall Park, as well as the artistic guidance of his high school teacher Ken Gesford. His inspirations range from composer Philip Glass to painters Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Agnes Martin, and textile artist Janice Lessman-Moss. As someone who has navigated mental health challenges, Culley sees art as a means of service, an offering that fosters connection, reflection, and healing for others.
West Branch Winter (2021)
Materials: Chalk pastel, 23.5” x 52.5”
Location: Barberton Joint Center for Excellence, Family Lounge
About the Art
Joe Culley, a visual artist, musician, and educator draws inspiration from the landscapes of Northeast Ohio, places that are part of his daily experience. His work often captures a precise sense of time and place, much like the nature photography of Ian Adams, also represented in the Summa Collection. By grounding his imagery in specific locations, Culley offers a sense of immediacy, inviting viewers to step into the scene and experience the moment as he did.
Winter in Ohio is a season of contrasts; serene yet dramatic, quiet yet powerful. In West Branch Winter, Culley conveys the early onset of the season through his use of color, composition, and gesture. The sky dominates the upper half of the piece, with cloud formations rendered in slate-gray and muted green, their swirling motion adding an undercurrent of unease. This sense of turbulence is offset by the stillness of the lower half of the composition, where calm waters, bare trees, and a shoreline strewn with rounded stones provide a grounding presence. The detailed rendering of the stones, each uniquely shaped, reinforces a sense of stability in contrast to the shifting sky above.
Culley’s deliberate juxtaposition of movement and stillness suggests nature’s balance, while winter storms may bring unrest, the land endures, prepared for what comes next. The piece evokes the chill of a late November afternoon, that moment of quiet anticipation before winter fully takes hold. Through his mastery of chalk pastel, Culley captures not just a landscape, but a feeling, a fleeting moment of transition, both foreboding and peaceful in equal measure.
About the Artist
R. Joseph Culley is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, and educator whose work is deeply rooted in the landscapes and daily life of Northeast Ohio. His paintings, drawings, and musical compositions reflect a profound engagement with place, improvisation, and the interplay of structure and spontaneity.
As a teacher, artist, and musician, Culley navigates the intersections of visual and auditory expression, exploring how improvisation fosters personal insight and connection. His evocative skyscapes and landscapes encourage contemplation; one might even imagine them accompanied by the meditative resonance of his tabla playing.
Culley earned his B.A. in Art Education from Kent State University, where he also studied environmental philosophy and jazz. Since 1990, he has been an art educator in the Nordonia Hills City School District, inspiring young artists while continuing his own creative practice. His artistic pursuits extend beyond painting to filmmaking and performance, particularly in the classical traditions of North Indian tabla music. Supported by an Ohio Arts Council grant, he apprenticed with sitarist Hans Utter and has since performed extensively across the U.S., accompanying sacred yogic kirtan chanting groups, vocalists, dancers, and fellow musicians.
Artistic expression is woven into Culley’s lineage, his grandmother taught creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University, and both his parents were visual artists, with his father serving as a professor at Kent State. This deep artistic heritage informs his lifelong exploration of creativity across multiple disciplines.
Where to See More of His Work
Culley’s recent works in pen and ink, watercolor, and mixed media can be found on his Facebook page and blog, where he also shares original musical compositions. His work has been exhibited in Akron and Cleveland, and several pieces are part of the Summa Health Collection.
The Healing Arts at Summa Health
- Next featured artist: Dragana Crnjak
- Homepage: summahealth.org/art
- More artwork in new patient tower