Katherine Smith

Nature is restorative and renewing. As someone who grew up constantly exploring the wilderness, I have witnessed the powers of nature. Regardless of how powerful mankind becomes, nature will always be the greater power.

    No matter where the military moved my family and me, nature was always my constant despite the change in houses, schools, and friends. I have observed nature reclaim herself from the grasps of man. I have seen nature turn death into new life. In this way, nature has always fascinated me.

    I relate to these ideas. Nature’s constant rebirth is symbolic of personal growth and the different stages I have gone through in my evolution as an individual. Nature being a repossessing force is symbolic of my reclaim in my identity as I make these changes in my life. As I grow, my work grows with me.

   My work is focused on these occurrences. The depiction of life becoming new life; rebirth from death. But also the repossession of one’s self. 
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    In the same way that rebirth is found in nature, there is a parallel to creating art from clay. The clay being of the earth is reborn through my hands and given the spark of life through the firing. I give my sculptures identity through my own identity.

​Katherine