Kate's  Accomplishments

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Kate Murray at the wheel

ARTIST  STATEMENT

The pots I make are one- or few-of-a-kind ceramic vessels, inspired by traditional forms, most often intended to be used with food or drink. I do like to embellish form, to add elegance and/or sensual life to domestic objects, as with the elaborate trimmed, paddled and cut feet and knobs on some pots. I refer often to historical pottery that I admire, for example rotund Tang Dynasty Chinese covered jars, or pitchers and ewers with extended spouts of Mediterranean cultures. I tend to choose glazes that give textural or color variations, by themselves or layered over each other, and I try to design sumptuous glaze surfaces to enhance the underlying forms. I think of glazing as dressing the forms to advantage, and often aim for effects reminiscent of textiles, fur or even feathers. It is my intention to be pleasant, sometimes humorous, in the manipulations of forms and allusions in glaze, and in subtle ways to allow the sensual pleasures of the process of making to show in the finished work.

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BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH

In 1978 Kate Shakeshaft took a ceramics course purely for fun while an English major at Grinnell College in Iowa, and since that time she has never stopped working in clay. She went to the University of Iowa for a B.F.A. in ceramics, sculpture and drawing, and spent five years after earning that degree working independently in Iowa City studios. In the summer of 1988 two workshops at the Penland School of Crafts led her out of Iowa, and by an indirect road to Vermont. There she set up a studio of her own, as well as working for five production potters in three years, underwent carpal tunnel release surgery, and decided to undertake graduate school. The offer of a Grinter Fellowship lured her to the University of Florida in Gainesville. After earning an M.F.A. in ceramics from the University of Florida in 1994, she taught at Francis Marion University in South Carolina for three years. In 1997 she returned to Gainesville to start up Round Earth Studio. She has exhibited her work nationally, and is represented in corporate, museum, and numerous private collections. She also has extensive experience as a cook and gardener.

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RECENT  AWARDS

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COLLECTIONS

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PUBLICATIONS

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