COLUMBIA

Katrina Chaytor: A Decorated Practice

The North-West Ceramics Foundation is
pleased to announce that Katrina Chaytor
will be the featured speaker at a free public
lecture at Emily Carr University on Nov. 12.

Katrina Chaytor is a nationally and
internationally known ceramic artist and
educator based in Calgary, Alta., where she
has been a permanent member of the ceramics
faculty at the Alberta College of Art + Design
since 2001. Born and raised on the Avalon
Peninsula in Newfoundland, she received
her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art
and Design in Halifax and her MFA from the
New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred
University, Alfred, New York.

Katrina has exhibited in numerous national
and international group, two-person and

Katrina Chaytor at

solo exhibitions. She has been an invited
work.

participant for residencies in Greece, Mexico,

Red Deer College, Watershed Centre for

the Ceramic Arts in Maine and Medalta International Artists-in
Residence in Medicine Hat. In 2007, she was one of ten Canadian
ceramic artists invited to participate in a month-long residency at
the Fule International Ceramics Art Museums (FLICAM) at FuPing,
Shaanxi, China. She has lectured and taught workshops across Canada
including at the Metchosin International Summer School of the

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Workshop
November 22 10:30am-1pm
Surrey Art Gallery

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Sign up!
604.501.5100, press 0
Mon-Fri, 8:30am-5:30pm

Kiln Operations
Sunday,

Learn all about electric kiln operations from Murray
Sanders, a pottery instructor and kiln manager at
the Surrey Art Gallery for 18 years. Topics include:
kiln loading, re-wiring, firing schedules, cones and
temperatures, trigger adjustments, troubleshooting,

maintenance and safety. $26.50

Surrey Art Gallery is located at 13750 - 88 Avenue

604-501-5566 | www.arts.surrey.ca

By Amy Gogarty

Flower Holder. Stoneware, Oxidation-fired.
Decoration: Repeating cursors and circuitry
latticework pattern.

Teapot with Trivet. Stoneware, oxidation-fired, Decoration: circuitry
latticework pattern.

Arts near Victoria, B.C.. Chaytor has been awarded grants from the
Manitoba Arts Council, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the
Canada Council. Her work is held in public and private collections
across Canada and in China.

Katrina is best known for her hand-built functional ware including
elaborate sets of stacking condiment pots and flower holders. These
are constructed with the precision of an architect and decorated with
the eye of a painter. Inspiration from the industrial arts is evident in
the clean lines and geometrical purity of much of her work and in the
flawless perfection with which she completes every detail. She works
with slab construction, imparting complex patterns onto her surfaces
with plaster moulds and enhancing them with luminous glazes in
jewel-like colours. She is dedicated to functional work, believing that
“pots have an inherent and intimate connection to daily life.” She
makes pots “that serve and signify; connect sensuous life with active
experience; and intertwine use with beauty, necessity with pleasure.”

Much of her studio research has focused on the role of ornament as
a “mediator between art and life” in contemporary culture. Chaytor
has written and presented extensively on the symbolic and semantic
value of ornamental motifs. She responds to decoration’s capacity to
“carry information and ‘carry on’ a performance,” its ability to both

Continued on Page 8, Ornamental Motifs

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter : October 2009

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