Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katherine Bell McClure. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Katherine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I’m a lifelong artist, drawing and painting since childhood. As a studio art major in college with a concentration on drawing and painting, I was required to draw everyday, and it made me a good artist. It’s crucial. The ability to draw well touches all other art forms, as drawing forces me to see what is there, not just what I expect to see- to slow down and really take in my subject, During the pandemic, I tried an online ceramics class, sculpting animals. It was hard and technical and a long process, but I liked it. I used my drawing skills to really look at the animals, to get them right. I started taking ceramics classes at Chastain Art Center in Atlanta when it opened back up after the pandemic. I enjoyed the community of like minded people and messing with clay. Nothing I made the first year was at all good, but the community kept me coming back.
I’ve always made my art in private, no one looking over my shoulder. I think I was more comfortable in the zoom ceramics class than in my first in person class. I know this is strange, as all but two of us faded out of the class by the last few weeks. It took time for me to not be embarrassed by the pieces I was making at Chastain, most of them turning out terribly since I never asked questions. Never asked how to do things everyone else seemed to already know how to do.
I took a few months off from ceramics and painted everyday- large contemporary pieces and small pet portraits. When I added ceramics back to the mix, it clicked. I finally made a good piece! It took me 3 months to make, and I loved it. That seemed to open me up to truly learning the craft. I asked questions. I bought books, I watched youTube videos, I joined Facebook groups on glazing and hand building. And the teachers, director, other students taught me more and more. Now I’m obsessed. And I still have a lot to learn.
I make animal sculptures, bowls, vases, luminaries, all sorts of things. Faux bois with mushrooms, lichen, and rabbits surround the bowls. Dogs and bears sit on the the rims and in the center of dishes. The animals may turn into assemblages or scenes in dioramas. I make porcelain plates and paint animals on them.
As for my first good piece, I thought I might always keep it, but I sold it just last week to someone who had wanted it from the first time she saw it and never let me forget. It’s in a good home!
Katherine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
After a brief stint in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art, I moved home to Atlanta, Georgia and soon had a studio on the Westside and was showing in a local gallery. In addition to making art, I also curated exhibits, organized auctions, taught, and contributed to books, magazine and newspapers. The arts have been a nonstop process for me, with an eclectic career. The one thing they didn’t teach me in art school was how to treat myself as a business. Without that foundation, I saw art as my passion and a side gig, no matter that it took up the majority of my time. I found other ways to make money, never getting a business sense for this art career I have continued for decades.
With experience and age comes long-awaited wisdom and time, so here I am figuring it all out in my over-50 years! Concentrating on making and selling art full time now, I’ve added ceramics to my mix of painting and drawing. I’ve made animal themed paintings of all sizes for years plus pet portraits with paint and mixed media on paper or canvas. I now make ceramic dogs and other animals, usually incorporated into a usable object. I’m primarily saving the ceramic work right now to find galleries or stores to sell it through.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I have 2 friends to thank for guiding me to Instagram as an outlet for my art. I was with an author friend, Adam Ross, at the Decatur Book Festival in 2012, and he explained the importance of Instagram as an artist. Pictures vs words- I kind of got it. Then another friend told me to follow artist Ashley Longshore to better understand what I could accomplish with social media. It clicked. And it was right up my alley. I am more than an artist, and I saw I didn’t have to limit myself to pictures of my art. Initially I had 2 accounts- one for art and another for my animal life. Once I combined them, Instagram got much more manageable, and my one account got much more popular. It’s the pictures and videos of my pets that brings in most followers, but that works since it ties in with my art. When my animal crew ended up on a popular animal site, The Dodo, I jumped up to approximately 9500 followers and have managed to keep around 8000 total. My advice is to 1) never start an account with just one post- pile them on day one. Add at least 10. Give your very first followers something to look at. And follow your followers, at least at the beginning. Follow accounts you like and that relate to you. 2) Find an account you relate to, like I did with Ashley Longshore, and look at all their posts. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel- what works well for one should work well for another. Let your personality shine through. The only sterile accounts that work are those from minimalist with clean cut personalities. 3) Post regularly and at the right time of day. This changes, and I’m currently trying to find that right time again. There are official best times to post- find current articles on the internet to guide you. 4) Get on Tiktok and do the same thing there. That’s advice for myself.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In 2009 my house and studio flooded. I lost so much- supplies and finished work and the studio itself for a time while it was under repair. More than that, we had a home to rebuild and refurnish, so art really took a back burner. Losing so much made making art feel pointless, something I didn’t need to be doing anymore. And as with anything, when you quit doing something, it’s hard to get started again. My resilience was egged on by outside encouragement really. The AJC ran an article about my studio flooding, and as a result, I got letters from friends and strangers alike encouraging me to keep painting. I had a show up at Gregg Irby Fine Art at the time, and the work was selling- and out of harms way thanks to excellent timing. That flood really knocked me down, but I made it through my pity party and continued to make art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://katherine-mcclure.com/home.html
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kmcclureartist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kmcclureartist
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinebmcclure/