This hand-built ceramic vase with eyes has been Raku fired. This work represents a dichotomous experiment of choice and chance. The artist sculpts the work with attention and precision, then paints it with a variety of glazes. The work is then fired to 2,000 degrees in less than an hour, removed from the kiln and laid in dry materials, burning and then cooling rapidly to around 100 degrees. The colors and textures of the glazes are totally dependent on weather, humidity, flames, and proximity with the dry materials. The thermal shock can make or literally break the sculptures. The colors and textures are complete chance and the survival of the piece is pure luck.

The magic of the process and the need to surrender to the materials is what inspires the artist and informs this body of work.

The words “Behold The End” is sprigged around the top of the urn which can be sealed with a cork plug and wax. One side of the urn is a skull, the other side a weeping willow.

Dimensions: 10 inches high by 7.5 inches deep by 8.5 inches wide

Katie Croft is multi-disciplinary artist, art therapist, and educator. She is a painter and ceramic sculptor. Her current work is focused on the intersection of art and healing and always addresses and the feminine. The work featured here was inspired by The Anatomical Venus wax figures. Katie has interpreted these uncanny historical works utilizing clay and pigment as paint. Each figure is unique and inspired by current events, medical models, and whichever rabbit hole of the morbid and esoteric she has gone down during the body’s formation and creation.

Katie graduated from Pratt with her MFA in 2020 and her MPS in 2022. Katie actively exhibits her work. Most recently her work has been featured in Whose Story Is It?, Spilt Milk Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland; Site:Brooklyn, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Winston Wachter Fine Art in Revisited 2021, Platform 2020, and SuperDutchess Gallery, NY. She’s been featured in numerous publications including the 2020 New American Paintings, No. 147, MFA Annual Issue and the inaugural issue of AllSheMakes contemporary art and culture magazine curated by ArtGirlRising. She was a 2022 finalist for Subject Matter, RePaint History, Art Girl Rising, Winter Prize, London, UK. Her work is currently featured online at Subject Matter, Site: Brooklyn, and Spilt Milk Gallery.