Monumental Clay Sculpture

This is one of the few days in the year when Katy McFadden, sculptor in clay, opens her garden to the public. She is a diminutive woman who makes clay sculptures taller than she is. She feels her sculptures are most at home in her own very large garden, where they catch light and shadow, sun and rain; where moss grows on the older ones, and where they exist in relation to each other. But she does love to sell them--for placement in people's gardens, offices, or homes. She had a glorious sunny day for her show.

There's a ten-minute video that shows how she does this amazing thing. I have friends who've had trouble firing mugs without getting cracks in them, so it's interesting to see how this woman can build a clay sculpture six or seven feet tall.

Some of her pieces are whimsical, some profound, and all of them, despite their size, have a lightness to them, as if they might almost take flight. A few of my other pictures of her and her work are here, on the new Flickr, and there are more on her website.