Cathy Burke

Cathy Burke lives and works in Wicklow. With a background in horticulture, she graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin with a BA in Craft Design (Ceramics) in 2014. Her intriguing hand-built clay forms are characterised by a distinctive use of natural glazes that reflect on nature's process of regeneration.

Cathy’s practice investigates the fragile charm found in the constant cycle of decay and renewal, decomposition and resurgence. Her process involves drawing, through which she explores landscape, architecture, topography and botanical forms, developing and deconstructing ideas before translating these into abstract ceramic pieces that display a tactile vitality. Using stoneware clay, she slab builds and manipulates the form of each work before finishing with dry, textured and volatile glazes that emulate corrosive rusts, vibrant vegetation and delicate mosses and lichens – signifiers of unpolluted air and a stable environment that produce alchemical surfaces. The language of these forms is used to reflect a fragile and vulnerable impermanence, while their unique surface qualities highlight the natural energies found in tangible indicators of decay. These elements are critical to the ideas she seeks to express in her work, which attempt to imitate the processes of corrosion, decomposition, revival and rejuvenation found in nature.

Cathy Burke applied for a Golden Fleece Award to support further research and experimentation with unusual glazes. An Award would fund the purchase of a test kiln and time to efficiently and cost-effectively test new glazes using reactive and unpredictable raw materials.