Kate MacDowell

Kate McDowell's exquisite porcelain sculptures explore our complex relationship with the natural world. Unlike many artists who deal with environmental concerns her approach is not the typical one of mere criticism and commentary on our ruthless and self defeating degredation of the natural world. She takes a more introspective and complex psychological approach, trying to get at what it means to be a part of nature, while at the same time feeling apart from it. She looks at our deep rooted need to connect to it in some fundamental way, to be a part it, while acknowledging that the need is ironic since we cannot be separate. Nature is in us, and we exist in it, in such a basic and fundamental way that our feelings of need and our actions of opposition represent a kind of psychosis. Out of this comes her images of both horror and humor.
All the work on her website is wonderful and full of surprises. See more at www.katemacdowell.com






















"Sparrow" 7"x6 ½"x2", hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze 2008

















"Migrant" 16"x20"x6 ½" assembled hand built porcelain 2009















"Migrant" detail























"Canary" 22"x22"x5" hand built porcelain, wooden wall pedestal, compact fluorescent lights, wiring 2008

And here's a smaller, later version of the same idea with a cutaway view of those canaries.






















"Canary 3" 13 ½"x12 ½"x6" hand built porcelain, cone 6 glaze 2009