Handmade Porcelain Sculptures by Kate MacDowell
- Words
- Caroline Kurze
American artist Kate Macdowell creates delicate porcelain sculptures that show the conflict between our romantic ideal of living in unity with nature while our contemporary impact on the environment doesn’t quite fit that intention. Each piece is hand sculpt out of porcelain, while she’s often building a solid form and then hollowing it out. Smaller forms are built petal by petal, branch by branch allowing the artist to get immersed in close study of the structure of a blossom or a bee. She chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture.
+ Read MoreShe states: “These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones.”
All images © Kate Macdowell
