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.

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Selected Exhibitions & Awards
Creative Crafts Council Biennial, Strathmore Mansion, Rockville MD, 2023
CraftForms 2021, Wayne Art Center, Wayne PA, 2021
Creative Crafts Biennial, Strathmore Mansion, Rockville MD, 2021
Celebrating the Makers, Academy Art Museum, Easton MD, 2019
Tabletop Juried Exhibition, Equal Merit Award, The Art League Gallery, Alexandria VA, 2019
By Invitation Exhibition, Waverly Street Gallery, Bethesa MD, 2020
Strictly Functional Pottery National, Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster PA, 2022
Tabletop Show, The Art League, Alexandria VA, 2023
Japan in Mind, magazine article by the artist, Pottery Making Illustrated, Westerville OH, 2021
Mise en place, Friends Artspace, Arlington VA, 2023