All purchased artworks will be shipped after the end of the exhibition on December 9th.
Caitlin Wallace-Rowland, Welcome Home, 2024, Ceramic Stoneware, Clay, Underglaze, Sgraffito, 3 x 4 x 4 inches
With a B.A. in English and Studio Art (Painting) from Tulane University and an M.A. in Fibers (Textile Design/Print & Pattern) from the Savannah College of Art and Design, I work primarily as a painter and textile designer. I’ve worked as a print designer for Lilly Pulitzer, I create fabric collections for Dear Stella Fabrics, I’ve had my art on products in Target and HomeGoods stores, and I sell my original paintings online.
I’ve long been interested in the intersection of art and beauty and functionality, heavily studying this connection in the history of quilts and fiber arts. Ceramics appeals to me in the same way – the ability to make something functional, to touch, to use, that is also a beautiful part of daily life. I like taking my work in surface pattern design and applying it to the 3-dimensionality of the ceramic form – painting with underglazes, carving into the form with sgraffito – seeing how pattern dances over the curves of the surface.
A few years ago, my dad died suddenly of pancreatic cancer and while knee-deep in my grief, Dear Stella asked me if I would create a Mardi Gras fabric collection. Experiencing my tenth Mardi Gras in New Orleans through the lens of grief and loss gave the celebration a whole new perspective. More than just sequins and glitter, the joy of the present moment contrasts so sharply with the resilience and loss New Orleans also holds. That balance between joy and sorrow, of celebration and loss, helped me find healing. This cup is a ceramic iteration of my popular New Orleans Houses fabric design, celebrating the uniqueness and beauty of this city and its ability to welcome so many people home.