March 2014: Cathie Joy Young & Kim Murton

Cathie Joy Young works in acrylic on wood panels. Her work is figurative with an abstract sensibility. "This body of work is different for me in that the majority of it was painted between Nov. 1st , 2013 and the opening of this show.  It is the most work I have ever made within the shortest deadline frame I have ever been under, and in some ways it is striking me as the most personal. I work intuitively and on multiple pieces at a time. My paintings reflect the activity in my mind and my daily life. This body of work contains thoughts and feelings from my past, some present day joy and pain, some future dreams, and my obsession with history and stories.”

Kim Murton is a ceramic artist working with low-fire terra cotta clay and colored slips. Her colorful, cartoon-like pieces are influenced from pre-Columbian and Mexican pottery, mixed with training and work history in animation and a love of comics. She is currently working on larger pieces, figurative busts and animals. To quote Kim, “Larger pieces require a leap of faith. Shrinkage, cracking, collapsing are all concerns when building large. Then there is the change of scale requiring a twist of the mind from small to big. I have six-legged cats and a four-legged woman. I like the stability of more legs and the humor of it not being quite right. But she also likes to work smaller. She explains that it enables her to experiment with different ideas and as a result a nature theme has emerged in the form of branches and leaves. “All of my pieces are hand built using a groggy Terra Cotta clay body. I paint with colored slip and underglaze and finish with a clear glaze fire. Mostly I use slab construction finished off with coil shaping.”