Catharine Brown
Ceramicist
Meeting Catharine Brown in her ceramics studio is a compelling experience! You’ll immediately be drawn to the artistry in her forms; to the nature themes; and to the bright and well built studio space where she works.
Catharine has a vast range of experience as a studio artist and educator. She credits her fiery college instructor, Antonio Prieto, as the one who introduced her to the wonders of clay. Thus began a life passion that led to her career. In graduate school she focused on hand built porcelain sculpture; and from her MFA thesis show, a piece was selected to be included in the Smithsonian’s international invitational show, “The Art of Organic Forms”.
A teaching position at VCU followed along with the opening of her first studio. She and her family later moved to the rural community of Celo in Western North Carolina, an enclave where other artists and artisans settled to raise families. In her new studio built by her husband she developed a wholesale line of functional and decorative ware for galleries across the country and taught workshops for adults and children.
The Brown family made a move into Asheville in 1986 when it was still a ghost town waiting for its renaissance. Catharine found a studio in Asheville’s first co-operative space called High Water Center (later renamed Flood Zone Studios) near Biltmore Village. During these early years in Asheville she was juried into the Southern Highland Craft Guild and Piedmont Craftsman. Her body of work evolved into non-functional sculpture when the visionary, John Cram, opened his Blue Spiral 1 gallery in downtown Asheville and asked her to create three “Blue Moon Goddesses” for the opening show on New Years Eve under a full blue moon. This began a period of making sculptures for gardens and the development of her Japanese-inspired garden in Kenilworth.
During these years she was able to study and explore working in cast glass, which she combined with her ceramic forms and with her husband Gerry’s wood work. Eventually she returned to her natural medium of porcelain, often with references to geology, archeology, mythology, and horticulture. In her new studio in Woodfin she is currently focusing on a variety of functional and non-functional work. The forms include ikebana containers, lanterns based on the human form made of landscapes on the interior and exterior, vase forms that appear as mountains or earth strata, and abstract wall pieces. To encourage interaction and playfulness some pieces include moveable components. The addition of granular minerals create patterns on the surfaces giving a stony appearance, and a combination of glazes and stains add color and sheen.
Through decades of working in ceramics Catharine has honed a dialogue with this malleable material. Ideas can take on surprising turns and morph into something entirely unintended and new. This spontaneous process allows for the ineffable to find form. She hopes that the mystery and delight she experiences with porcelain can carry out into the world.
Catharine and I invite you to visit her studio on an Art Connections Tour!
