Artist Research Paperwork

Mrs. C-Harvey

Date 08/14
o

AP studio art

Artists Full Name Kate MacDowell

Date of Birth/Death: n/a
Place of Birth/Death: n/a

Primary type of artwork (example: painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking,

ceramics etc. )
The artist works in sculptural ceramics.
Media (What materials were predominately in this artists work?)
MacDowell works primarily in clay, specifically porcelain, but has also
studied in glass.
Style or art period most associated with the artists
Seeing as she is still working today, I would say that she is part of the
modern art movement, but stylistically her pieces are a sort of sculptural
realism.
Please list in complete sentences personal/interesting information on the artist.
Include education, influences, experiences etc.
Kate MacDowell has travelled a lot and worked in many different settings.
She volunteered at a meditation retreat in rural India, created websites
in high-tech corporate environments, and taught in urban highschools.
She grew up in Columbus, Ohio and studied at the Art Center in Carrboro,
North Carolina and then continued in Portland, Oregon. She works
currently on her sculptures full-time, with a focus on nature and
humanitys relationship with it. All of her life she had an interest in
animals, and her family often went on camping and hiking trips, so shes
felt connected to nature significantly throughout her life. She does lots of
research regarding the anatomical and scientific aspects of the creatures
and forms that she puts into her sculptures. Sometimes she uses molds
and other times she assigns certain aspects of a piece to an intern. What
attracted her to porcelain was its translucency, and the way it can hold
small details.

First and Last Breath, hand built porcelain, mixed media, 2010

Description: This porcelain sculpture is of a mother rabbit wearing a gas mask

while her newborn baby rabbits feed. The entire piece is the white of the porcelain,
with texture being seen in the fur of the mother rabbit and the wrinkly skin of her
children. The gas mask has plastic indentations and a smooth, manmade surface.
The white color of the piece creates value as light falls over the intentional texture,
so much so that even the veins in the mother rabbits ears are visible. The mothers
form has one legged raised and held over her bundle of pups, possibly in a
protective stance and possibly just to allow them to feed, and she is looking upward
into the distance.
Analysis: The way the mothers fur is laid through the use of texture creates
movement that draws the viewers eye from the mask down to the baby rabbits. The
multiples of pups create repetition of form, a little jumble of wrinkles and wide eyes.
There is a contrast between the seemingly soft fur of the mother and the smooth
body of the gas mask. The placement of the large cylinder at the end of the gas
mask, pulled away from the body and pointing up to the sky, creates an emphasis
on the mothers face that keeps the viewers eye there.
Interpretation: The lack of color and the emphasis on the form of the gas mask
leads me to believe that the meaning of this piece is in regards to the damage that
humans have done to the environment. We have stolen and exploited animal lives
and habitats with our machinery, and this mother rabbit is looking into a future for
her babies where she has to use that very machinery to survive, hence the gas
mask. The title, First and Last Breath, is telling us that when these animals are born,
they get their first and last chance at life, as they are forced to be a part of a world
that is completely at the mercy of humankind.
Judgement: I personally think that this piece is very powerful. The striking effect of
the gas mask makes me want to sit and contemplate the meaning. I think that the
composition draws people in and the delicate value created by the white color and
careful texture give the eye a lot to look at. It shows Mac Dowells signature style of
delicacy, and it has a lasting importance in both its appropriate concept for our
time period and its unique handling of the porcelain medium.

Skin-changers closet, wall-installation, hand-built porcelain, glaze, 2015

Description: This piece is of nine forms of dead animals made to look like they are
hanging from the wall. The forms include a bat, and octopus, a small alligator, a
beetle, a bird, a frog, a worm, a mole, and a rabbit. The forms are all white, and
there is negative wall space between them. They are all heavily detailed, with lines
that indicated scales, tentacle suckers, fur, and even feathers. The forms have soft
value from the light source that show all of their bumps and curves, as well as long
shadows on the wall beneath them. Their limbs hang limp down at their sides, and
in the case of the rabbit, its head does as well.
Analysis: The stark white of the forms creates contrast between the forms and the
walls and their own shadows. Movement is created by the negative space between
each corpse, moving the eye to zigzag to all of the animals. The value that occurs
when the light hits the surface textures emphasizes the individual attributes of each
animal.
Interpretation: The trophy-like display of the animals corpses reminds me of
hunting, and how deer heads are often displayed against a wall. But the messy
arrangement, with the rabbit looking as if it is just nailed to the wall by the skin of
its neck, creates a different message than the neatly-hung trophy head of a dear. So
I think that this piece is in regards to the animals that are hunted down, but not on
purpose. These animals are hunted down through deforestation and pollution and
other environmental problems, and are essentially collateral damage. These
animals dont die out of glory, so they are not hung up and displayed with honor.
Judgement: This is a piece that plays very well to Mac Dowells skill sets. Her
ability to realistically and delicately depict a natural form, to create depth and value
without having to use colors, and her deep environmental messages regarding the
problems when the environment and human kind collide. I think this piece is very
successful and could be seen as one of her signature pieces, since it communicates
the concept so well.

More examples of her work

Entangled, hand built porcelain, 2010

Bad seed, hand built porcelain, 2007

Catch, hand built porcelain, 2008

Sources
http://www.katemacdowell.com/biography.html
http://www.warholian.com/2011/09/kate-macdowell-interview/