ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHY & STATEMENTS

Ruth Vander Horck

I am a Madison-based artist who works in clay, textiles, and found objects and in some cases I am crossing boundaries between these disciplines. I taught in public and private schools (pre-K-16) until 2015 when I was accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program in Visual Art at Indiana University’s Herron School of Art. Graduating in 2018, I set up my studio in my home. I have developed lines of work that relate to my lived experience and my view of the world.

I use my artwork to raise awareness and dialogue with the viewer on the unique lived experiences of women. I explore the emotional and psychological aspects of female experience and where that intersects with culture and equity issues.
Some of my work looks at the body-experience of pregnancy, but other pieces are about the internal feelings masked or hidden from view that affect the body and mind. I think about the inequities and accepted norms of the past and present that have left some misunderstood and unsupported. In a world where female experiences have been dismissed or seen as weakness, and having emotions has been viewed as falling apart. I am asking the viewer to look and see these issues in a different way and dialogue about what they see in the pieces.

Kathy King

My passion is pottery & painting, mostly pottery functional ware, and painting. Over time the two medias have started to merge.  Although I continue to work as a watercolor and acrylic painter, most of what you will see on this site is pottery.
I have taught art for ever it seems, starting when I was a student at Wichita State University. One of my painting professors asked if I would teach a watercolor continuing Education class at the university for a few extra bucks. After that class, with a little nudging from my Mother and because I loved every medium I was exploring, I changed my major to education and the rest is history, as they say. My passion even as a 12 year old was to just create art, and now that I’m a retired teacher I can finally live my dream.

Kathy King, a potter and painter, raised a Kansas girl, but calls Monroe, Wisconsin home for 42 years. Retired from teaching Art at Monroe High School 2019. King’s pottery all starts at the potter’s wheel, throwing forms to become functional pieces, parts of a sculpture and on occasion mixing media. Her pieces tell a story from life around her, a memory or her imagination. Reoccurring themes of the figure and “as the crow flies” dominate her work. The surface is an opportunity to draw, carve, manipulate or apply color using underglazes, and or glazes as well as carving using a technique called sgraffito. Her work is oxidation fired at cone 6, Wood fired at cone 10 or Raku depending on the piece or time of year. She spends a lot of time creating forms that please her, never has considered herself a production potter, each piece is unique and a one of a kind piece. She strives to make sure each piece’s surface imagery tells a visual story. The handle on each mug feels good in her hand, the lip of each piece is just the right thickness, Her figures tell a story with the expression on their faces and their body posture. Even though none of her pieces are perfect she continues to strive for perfection. Her functional pieces are all food, dishwasher & microwave safe.