Cathy Rose: Watermark, Seager Gray Gallery

CATHY ROSE: Watermark

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CATHY ROSE: Watermark

essay by Celeste Berteau

23 Sunnyside Ave. l Mill Valley, CA 94941 l 415.384.8288 l seagergray.com

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CATHY ROSE: Watermark Exhibition Dates: December 17, 2013 - January 12, 2014 Reception for the artist: Tuesday, December 17, 6 to 8pm Essay by Celeste Berteau Front Cover: Cathy Rose, Instinct, hand-formed porcelain, found objects, 22 x 22 x 10�

Back Cover: Cathy Rose, Elusive, hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire, 17 x 9 x 5�

Photography Credit: Michael Palumbo, www.mpphotography.com Direct inquiries to: Seager Gray Gallery 23 Sunnyside Ave. Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.384.8288 art@seagergray.com

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CATHY ROSE

To enter the New Orleans studio of sculptor Cathy Rose is to enter a sanctum where magic happens. The magician is of course the artist, and the products of her magic, in various stages of creation, pull the fortunate visitor into their private world.

Enchanting figures invite us to share the secrets of their journeys from conception to completion, and though the journeys are long, they are guided by self-less devotion, extreme care, and extraordinary talent.

Rose employs a variety of materials to create her sculptures, with porcelain, wood, and metals being predominate. The 1700 square-foot studio is articulately organized to accommodate each step of a sculpture’s creation, as well as to store in plain sight the hundreds, if not thousands, of found objects and pieces and parts the artist has collected over nearly twenty years.

Growing up in central Florida, Rose had no other ambition than to share her passion for art with others. With a Bachelors degree in fine art and a Masters degree in art education, she taught art to elementary school students, as well as college students for fourteen years. Having specialized in drawing throughout her own fine arts education, she found herself lured to the medium of ceramics in 1992. And in 1993 she discovered the specific ceramic medium that interested her most. It was the type of clay called porcelain.

“It has a temperament,” Rose says of porcelain. “It fights me and shrinks in the kiln, but it’s so smooth it’s like working with cream cheese.”

Somersault, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 23 x 13 x 8” 5

Instinct, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects 22 x 22 x 10�

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In 1996, after three years of creating porcelain mixed-media

The studio reminds one of an enchanted workshop, the type

sculptures, Rose began to exhibit her work outside of Florida. Her

that could be manned by a troupe of elves, but Rose employs

first two shows proved to be notably successful. At this point

no assistants. When viewing Rose’s work it is apparent that in

Rose recognized what she was meant to do, and asked for a

addition to her aptitude for drawing and clay sculpting, she is also

leave of absence from her teaching position. Despite her love of

a gifted woodworker, metal smith, and seamstress.

teaching, she has devoted herself fulltime to creating fine art ever since.

It is fitting that this artist whose work often represents the theme of rebirth has chosen New Orleans as her home, a city

In Rose’s studio, eying items like a miniature metal cart and

still laboring to fully rebuild after the devastation induced by post

pieces of ornamental wooden molding, one cannot help but ask

Hurricane Katrina flooding in 2005.

again and again, “Where did you find this?” and if the answer is not, “At an architectural salvage shop,” it will most likely be, “A

Rose says she has loved New Orleans from the first time she

second-hand store.” A particularly attractive iron grate had been

visited. She finds it to be “a city with a heart and a soul,” and she

reclaimed from a house in Kansas, and an unusually large set of

continues to admire the “passion of the people.” New Orleanians

springs had once resided within the seat of a Ford Model T. Over

are indeed a passionate citizenry. They have a well-known passion

the years Rose has become known to owners of salvage yards

for food, as well as for great art and great music. They also have

from New Orleans to Memphis to Kansas City, who routinely

deep affection for history and preservation. Although much

save items they believe may interest her.

of New Orleans’ historic architecture has been lost over the years, vestiges of these buildings and homes still exist in Rose’s

Rose has set up her studio to accommodate every stage of her

sculptures.

creative process, from minute drawings rendered in a small sketchbook, to forming the figures in clay (no molds or castings

One may encounter trees sprouting from a piece of a cypress

are utilized), to then firing up to thirty pieces in her onsite kiln,

shutter that once protected the window of a nineteenth century

where the porcelain transforms from clay to something more like

shotgun house, or find a section of a newel post from a Creole

glass. It can take Rose up to six weeks to load her kiln, as the

cottage serving as a base for a boat and its passenger. A portion

porcelain pieces are much too fragile to handle once they have

of what was once a mantel in an Italianate camelback home

dried. When the firing is completed the artist stains the faces

carries on in the 21st century in the form of a horse’s body.

of the figures using both acrylic and oil paint. Then it is time for “piecing the puzzle together,” as Rose refers to the operation of

Like many artists, Cathy Rose creates works which are highly

assembling the sculptures. The materials she uses are chosen

personal, a sort of “emotional journaling,” Rose says, yet the

from the plethora of architectural elements, and numerous

pieces represent ideas and emotions which everyone who

pieces of wood in various sizes, but also from baskets and boxes

beholds them can relate to. At some point in our lives we will all

filled with porcelain hands and heads. Copper wires that will

suffer great loss, then experience the need to recover from it—

be transformed into flowing tresses atop the heads of Rose’s

we will struggle to move forward, yet we will always remember.

characters are abundant, and swatches of leather and fabric are

We are reminded of the importance of having patience. And that

on view, along with antique toys.

there is always hope.

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Cicada, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, wood 60 x 9 x 9� detail: right

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Included in this exhibition are eloquent examples of sculptures

There is a peaceful quality about the sculptures of Cathy Rose

which have already touched the hearts of admirers, not the

that invites the viewer to enter an almost meditative state as well.

least of which is Your Presence, Still. In this piece the artist has

The figures draw us into their world and we accompany them on

placed a solid porcelain figure upon a wood-patterned grate.

their journeys, whether they are into the past via memory, or into

Small porcelain tiles rest inside of every opening of the grate,

the future aboard boats or astride horses. The figures, mysterious

representing the momentary thoughts and memories that run

at first and somewhat otherworldly in appearance, upon closer

through the artist’s mind every day. When an acquaintance of

inspection, reveal themselves to be all of us. That’s the magic of

Rose’s, another artist whose son had passed away, encountered

the art of Cathy Rose.

this piece, she understood it without explanation. That is the

power of true art.

- Celeste Berteau

In Letting Go the figure is on a journey. She is indeed letting go and moving forward. The figure’s pensive face conveys her resolve, yet we may wonder if the exceedingly fine strands of copper wire which attach the figure to the boat, are attempting to hold her back, or are in fact, holding her steady and keeping her on course.

To create the powerful, glass-encased Cicada, Rose has incorporated another figure of solid porcelain fitted with the preserved wings of a cicada. A fragile piece to assemble, the artist coated the wings in resin, attached brass wire along the edges of the wings, then sewed thin copper thread along the wire to stabilize the wings. For Rose, the piece represents transition, rebirth, and our ability to reinvent ourselves.

The first of a new series, Instinct is open to interpretation, but some may find it symbolic of joy and freedom. The figure is in motion, and although it is constructed of wood and leather, it could conjure up lightheartedness. It could also represent rebirth, since the white leather covering the wooden armature was once an antique doll. After Rose fitted the leather shapes to the torso of the figure, she glued and nailed them in place. Rose says she found the creation of Instinct, particularly the “methodical tapping of nails into leather and wood and the textures it creates,” to be “a soothing form of meditation.”

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Crosswind, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 71 x 34 x 12�

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Heart’s Content, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 76 x 24 x 12�

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Letting Go, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 32 x 16 x 10�

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Adapt, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 28 x 12 x 10�

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Longing, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 13 x 17 x 8�

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Filtered Light, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, wire 23 x 11 x 6�

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Blue, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects 27 x 8 x 8�

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Shadows, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper and steel wire 36 x 36 x 14�

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Balance, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects 12 x 28 x 6�

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Elusive, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 17 x 9 x 5�

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Lucky Girl, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 20 x 19 x 7�

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Patience, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 15 x 12 x 8�

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High Hat II, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects 12 x 12 x 4�

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Memory, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 20 x 7 x 5�

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Premonition, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper and steel wire 30 x 18 x 14�

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Harlequin, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper wire 32 x 10 x 9�

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Wind, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper and steel wire 46 x 42 x 21�

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Your Presence, Still, 2013 hand-formed porcelain, found objects, copper and steel wire 13 x 26 x 4�

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23 Sunnyside Sunnyside Ave. Ave. ll Mill Mill Valley, Valley, CA CA 94941 94941 ll 415.384.8288 415.384.8288 ll seagergray.com seagergray.com 23 28