Kim Cutler

"I have left the world of round and gone "slab happy." I love designing, building and assembling clay elements to make a graceful, elegant object which screams simplicity."

When Kim is not art-making, she is not happy. Inspired by the Asian aesthetic and the play book of the architect, she enjoys the challenge of building new vessels from shapes she cuts from slab. She makes a vessel over and over until she finds a perfect form with elegant proportions. The exploration process is exciting and time-consuming but definitely worth the time invested.

Kim begins with sketches inspired by something she has seen or imagined. She creates a 3-D version of her idea using pieces of stiff slab. A trial and error process follows until the form is "right" in Kim's opinion. When a pot is worthy of repeating, she creates a template which can be used again. To enliven the surface of each piece, Kim decorates the slabs with slip and texture.

All Kim's formal training in ceramics took place in classes and workshops at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, MA. In college (BA) she studied art history and in graduate school (MAT) painting. Her career as a graphic designer certainly informed her design aesthetic. But the greatest contribution to her ceramic style came from working alone and making design choices in her studio.