Catherine Eaton Skinner

The power of the natural world, its intrinsic energy, and fundamental properties, is dependent upon a fine balance. The balance of positive and negative forces resides in the smallest particles that make up our universe to concepts we live with every day: night/day and dark/light; finite/infinite and one/zero; quiet/loud; soft/hard; organic/man made, and the natural environment as opposed to human construction.

 

The five elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether have been in my work for over fifty years. At times these energies have made themselves very present, altering my subject matter and initiating revisits to older series. The corvids stretch between the places I live. The geography of mountains, forest and water is constantly being newly illuminated, in travels or just beyond my back door.

— Catherine Eaton Skinner


Catherine Eaton Skinner works out of her Northwest and Santa Fe studios as a multidisciplinary artist, incorporating painting and encaustic, sculpture, printmaking and photography. Growing up east of Seattle, she then received her B.A. in Biology from Stanford University, while studying art under Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. Her work explores the natural world, its intricacies and energies that require a new balance. Often using the Eastern philosophical number of 108, Skinner uses repetition of sacred forms, reiterating both the artistic and the spiritual dissolution of the self into the whole.

 

Skinner’s work is in numerous private and public collections including Museum of Northwest Art, the Henry Art Gallery, Tacoma Art Museum, Virginia Mason Medical Center and Swedish Orthopedic Institute. She has participated in many juried shows, nationally and internationally, including a solo show in Tokyo where work was displayed in that American Embassy residence with the Art in Embassies program.