Catherine Satterlee

"I have always loved working with my hands, and there is no more direct experience than working with clay. I am constantly amazed and grateful for its warmth and malleability. As each piece develops, it feels like the clay and I are engaged in a creative dialogue, each ready to listen and respond. "

The inspiration for a piece is usually texture or pattern, then comes the form. Rather than throwing pieces on a wheel, the artist uses hand-building techniques to create her work, because she enjoys the slow, deliberate pace that process affords. And because she loves the earthiness of clay, she often leaves evidence of the material and the making—some surfaces may be unglazed, some edges left rough, or one glaze may be allowed to drape over another.

Most of the artist's forms are built up with clay coils and slabs, and most of the decorative work on her pieces is done at the leather hard stage, when the clay is stiff but still moist. This includes applying liquid clay slip, painting with colored underglazes, carving, stamping, incising, and scraping. After a period of slow drying comes the initial bisque firing, then pieces are glazed, often with a fairly simple clear or matte coating, and fired again in an electric kiln.

The artist was introduced to ceramics at Bennington College in the late 60s, and during a forty year career in art—as a painter, graphic designer, and exhibits specialist at a major art museum—she returned to clay occasionally. But in 2014, she turned to ceramics in earnest, and it felt like coming home. Except for several workshops, mostly recently at Anderson Ranch in Colorado, she is largely self-taught. She brings to her clay work the same urge to explore and to create unique works of art as she did to her painting.