About
Natalie Walker is a ceramic sculptor based in Crested Butte, Colorado. After a long career as a recording artist, she turned to ceramics four years ago — finding in clay and fire a different kind of expression. Her raku-fired snake sculptures have been shown in Denver showrooms and are currently on view in Bozeman, Montana.
WHY SNAKES?
I make work for people who feel the delightful pull of something they can’t look away from.
Snakes carry everything we have projected onto them — danger, seduction, evil, taboo. My intention is to change that existing narrative with my work in ceramics. To me, snakes represent transformation and feminine power.
Each piece is meant to provoke a strong feeling of connection to a commonality that we all share: Through a single lifetime we all experience the “shedding” of our old selves to emerge anew over and over again if we are lucky. We often emerge wiser and stronger even if the transformation feels difficult, unpredictable and turbulent (much like the process of raku firing)
I tediously hand build snake sculptures and raku fire them. The work that comes out of that process feels alive to me in a way that quieter methods don’t.