Kate Borcherding

Kate Borcherding’s journey from printmaking to the Kohler Foundry follows a trail through ceramics and environmental sculpture. The common thread in her work is its emotional strength, gestural qualities, layered textures, and the centrality of the human figure or the experience of being human.

Borcherding worked with ceramist Margaret Bohls (now teaching at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln) to raise funds for the art department and students at Sam Houston University in Texas. Bohl made plates, bowls, and other functional items which Borcherding painted with stains and glazes, creating scenes that lived between dimensions. Their efforts were wildly successful and people started buying their art every year, making collections. Borcherding eventually bought a small kiln and began her figurative ceramics journey. She is fascinated by the power of the human figure as it reaches monumental size, when it crosses the boundary and projects energy into an individual’s psychological space, when the art becomes participatory.

Borcherding attended ceramics workshops and in 2012 was chosen for an artist residency program at Baltimore Clayworks. In 2013, she needed to be in Wisconsin for the entire summer. She proposed a site-specific Kickstarter project to go to Door County and stack rocks. The sculptures were up to 9 feet tall in the water. The power of these pieces made of dolomitic limestone generated a lot of interest in the local community. Many people saw this ephemeral work and interacted with the space. It was at that time that Borcherding visited the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and met with Kristin Plucar and Garrett Krueger and took a factory tour.