Q&A With Kathy Butterly

Kathy Butterly: I was a creative child, but I didn’t know that you could be an artist. Coming from the suburbs and a family that was not into art at all, I didn’t have any role models. I went to Moore College of Art & Design to be an interior designer. While I was there, Viola Frey, a California ceramic artist, visited. I saw her transform a lump of 25 pounds of clay into a 15-foot-tall sculpture. Seeing this woman, who was my height, make these monumental sculptures that had meaning made me think, “I wanna do that!”

KB: Everywhere! I live in New York City and Maine. In NYC, there’s so much energy and tension. In Maine, I’m interested in peace and tranquility. I typically start a work in the city and then bring it up to Maine. I work on it there, and then I bring it back to the city. In NYC, the works are full of tension and anxiety. And then I go to Maine, and there’s a lot of grace and beauty. It really is a beautiful balance of two parts of my personality.

KB: I go to a store like Crate & Barrel, West Elm, or even an aquarium. I find a form I respond to—usually a generic form like a fishbowl. I like the idea of finding something that’s mass-produced and creating something utterly unique out of it. I make a plaster mold of it. This allows me to create replicas of the original shape. This is my starting point.

KB: I manipulate the shape, pushing, prodding, and distorting it. When I see a shape that I respond to, I use hot air from a blow-dryer to heat the clay and stop it from moving. Then I add more clay or carve it. Carving takes days, and I love this process. The piece goes from ugly and brutal to alive with a personality. I put it in the kiln for the first firing, and then it’s time to glaze. The first layer of glaze sets the whole tone for the piece. I fire it and then glaze it again. Each one can go in the kiln up to 40 times.

KB: It’s finished when it stops bugging me. I have a wall of pedestals in my studio with works at various stages. Sometimes one will sit there for a month, and I don’t know what to do to it. Sometimes I have to sabotage it because it’s not going anywhere, and it needs a new direction. They are very demanding, and they need a long time.

KB: I don’t do any sketches, and I don’t know what a piece will be about or how it will look until it’s finished. And because they take up to a year to make, the world’s changing and I’m changing. They evolve with each layer of glaze. For example, when I got married and I had children, I wasn’t consciously thinking, “I’m going to make works about having a family,” but the work reflected that. My current work is larger because I’m thinking of things larger than myself, world events, and the environment. I’ve been choosing colors that reflect that. There’s a lot of green and a lot of intense, bright orange, which is a beautiful color but also a warning.

KB: If you show an interest in and a love for art, people are going to want to help you. People will open their doors and hearts to help you find your way.