Kirstie Rea is a leading exponent of the technique of kiln working. In Australia, this process is closely associated with the Glass Studies program at the Canberra School of Art, where Rea is a faculty member.

The Australian landscape and structures built within it are the artist's main source of inspiration. Simple angular forms are suggestive either of modest dwellings or that familiar icon of Australian vernacular architecture, the corrugated-iron shed. Rea also seeks to express the broad expanse of the Australian landscape.

The fragile relationship that exists between man and nature - exemplified by allusions to the 'Australian bush' - is a recurrent theme in Rea's cast glass.