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Artist Statement

Catherine’s dedication to art and craft goes back 30 years to when she bought her first box of oil colors and an easel.

After graduating from the College of Gambach in Fribourg, Switzerland in 1983 she moved to London, where she attended the Ceramic Department at the “Putney School of Art”. She spent the next three years at a pottery school in Lausanne, (Switzerland), where, in her final year, she also taught pottery.

In 1989 she opened her first workshop in Fribourg (Switzerland). Besides working on her own production, she also taught ceramics. Catherine graduated from the Ceramic department of the “Schule fuer Gestaltung” (School for Applied Arts) in Bern in 1999.

Beside ceramics, Catherine has had a passion for paper cuttings since 1981.  A traditional Swiss art, which became very popular in a small valley in the Swiss mountains called “Le Pays-d’Enhaut”, where Catherine’s parents live.  The art was not invented in Switzerland, as paper has been folded, cut and pasted in China, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Germany and most of Central Europe for centuries. To make a paper cutting, a sheet of black paper is folded in the middle, patterns are drawn on one half and very intricate motives cut out with small nail scissors.  Most people now work with a scalpel, Catherine, however, has remained faithful to the traditional use of scissors, despite the technical challenge to hold the piece while cutting.

Catherine has always been very sensitive to human causes and in 1995 this led her to help a well-known Swiss Charity Organization to set up a craft shop in Fribourg, which she managed for three years. The idea was to provide an income to craft people as well as craft programs in Third World countries by selling their work in Switzerland. The shop is still thriving.

Stained Glass

In 1989 she was commissioned to design 24 large stained-glass windows, as well as a 12-foot mural, for the Newspaper “Le Republicain” in Estavayer-le-Lac, Switzerland. The stained-glass windows cover two sides of the Newspaper’s conference room.

Paintings

Although clay and paper cuttings are her predominant mediums, painting remains an important part of her work and comes as a welcome break from the complexity of ceramics and intricacy of paper-cutting.

After painting with oil for more than 20 years, she now uses a technique of watercolors mixed with pastel, a technique she has developed over the years.