Kat Habib is a ceramics artist, florist and educator whose technique focuses on hand building and sculpture. Working from her Blue Ridge Mountain home at the foot of the Shenandoah National Park, Kat draws her inspiration from nature, a background in art conservation, and the unique “personalities” of various clay bodies. All of her work is made with stoneware clay using hand building methods of coils or slabs-- nothing is thrown on the pottery wheel. Kat is currently utilizing two different firing methods in her work, wood and gas reduction, continually seeking a perfect marriage of surface and form for her vessels. Wood firing is her preferred method as the duration of each firing (4-7 days) allows for natural glazing through deep crystalline development on the clay surface with ash build up; the fire and ash seeming to be collaborators in creating the final pieces. She finds beauty in the asymmetry and variations of the wood fired surfaces and hand built forms.
Flowers are Kat's other artistic medium of choice as these also play with the tenants of color, line, form and composition. She finds the immediacy of flowers to be a nice creative counterpoint to her slower ceramic process. Kat began working with Jen Cable in September, 2013, through the Coterie shop (now shuttered), and doing flowers under the banner, Flourish Root Floral Studio. The floral and green installation work have inspired Kat's ceramic process as well as she makes custom vessels to meet their collaborative floral needs.
Kat received a BFA in 2009 from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. Additionally, she studied art conservation during semesters in Florence, Italy, and at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. Upon graduation, Kat was offered management of the Corcoran College of Art and Design ceramics studio where she served until June, 2013. Now based in Sperryville, Virginia, Kat works full time in her studio, offers ceramics workshops and works collaboratively as a florist and resident artist with Flourish Root Floral Studio.
Images of Kat's current work and projects can be found on Instagram. Videos on her construction method can be found on the News & Notes page, published in 2/2020.
Flowers are Kat's other artistic medium of choice as these also play with the tenants of color, line, form and composition. She finds the immediacy of flowers to be a nice creative counterpoint to her slower ceramic process. Kat began working with Jen Cable in September, 2013, through the Coterie shop (now shuttered), and doing flowers under the banner, Flourish Root Floral Studio. The floral and green installation work have inspired Kat's ceramic process as well as she makes custom vessels to meet their collaborative floral needs.
Kat received a BFA in 2009 from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. Additionally, she studied art conservation during semesters in Florence, Italy, and at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. Upon graduation, Kat was offered management of the Corcoran College of Art and Design ceramics studio where she served until June, 2013. Now based in Sperryville, Virginia, Kat works full time in her studio, offers ceramics workshops and works collaboratively as a florist and resident artist with Flourish Root Floral Studio.
Images of Kat's current work and projects can be found on Instagram. Videos on her construction method can be found on the News & Notes page, published in 2/2020.
