Catherine Eaton Skinner

Mixed Media

My work gives expression to my journeys through many cultures over the years. From ancient time forward, people have journeyed to sacred places. We live in a world where it may be difficult to feel a part of the whole, but we continue trying to find ways to connect to place and to each other. By leaving offerings of our own, we connect not only with those who have come before us, but also to those pilgrims yet to come.

The five elements–earth, fire, water, air and space–come into play in the actual physicality of the media I use: beeswax, resin, and oil; stones and metals; lead sheeting, precious metals; cast glass and bronze; textiles and natural dyes; collected old book pages and handmade Himalayan papers.

I create layered work to allow for beauty and spiritual depth. I like moving from the simplicity of tantric forms to the complications of grids and multiplicity and to marking the energy between sky and earth with trees and birds.

I have lived in the Northwest most of my life, my childhood in Bellevue, a farm for twenty years on San Juan Island, and a return to Seattle for the last twenty-seven years. My sister and I were encouraged early to be artists, given crayons and blank paper, and both continue to share this with each other. I received my Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Stanford University, also studying art with Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. Venturing to Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station for a scholastic quarter, my early biological illustration became focused on Pacific coast marine life, continuing for the next twenty years working on books, articles, and installations. Marrying early out of the university and having three children, my first husband and I lived on San Juan Island for twenty years. Fairly self-sufficient and on little income, we spent little time in the city and constructed our own home. I continue to love to garden, ride my horse, but the flock of fifty sheep had to move on.

More on Catherine Eaton Skinner's work can be found on our Links page.