Kate Butler is a ceramic artist and writer based in NYC. The daughter of a potter, she re-discovered her connection to clay while pursuing an MFA in Fine Art and MS in Art History from the Pratt Institute. Evoking the growth of plants or the erosion of rock, her sculptures and designs suggest the linkage of natural forces — light and time, water and air — to the animating force of human feeling. Enlivened by the pressure of the hand, form seems to grow out of itself, whether modulating around or emerging from a central, hollow core. They reflect a sort of animism: “the attribution of souls to plants, inanimate objects and phenomena.”
This applies to her sculptures as much as her designs. Through an intuitive dialogue between her hands and the clay, Kate re-interprets familiar objects into unique, creaturely forms — inviting wonder, mystery and play.