Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Uplift
Kathy Butterly’s ceramics don’t need to be large to make a big impact. Uplift and Nancy’s Beans playfully command your attention with their riotously colored globs, blobs, chambers, and nooks. Contorting traditional ceramic forms into charismatic characters, Butterly has “long-term relationships” with her works. Months pass as she squeezes, squishes, and shapeshifts a tiny sculpture to find its distinctive personality, adding unexpected appendages and decorative flourishes as “wild-card elements” that build their unique personas. With whimsical details and technical expertise, Butterly’s pieces confound expectations of what ceramics should be.
This artwork's face covers about 3.4× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.