American Artist Cat Pottery Mary Gates Dewey Modern #1, 14"H X 14" W
Mary Gates DeweyNatalie KnothJust like stumbling upon an abandoned kitten, Mary Gates Dewey discovered her skill of creating ceramic cats unexpectedly.“I worked with clay for years, and I just made one, one time, and it sold, and then I made a couple and they sold,” Dewey said.That was in 1982.Twenty-seven years later, the detailed cat sculptures are sold across the country at art and craft galleries. Her studio, aptly named The Dewey Studio, is located at 8781 Mine Road in Athens.Her daughter, Robin Dewey of Athens, wrote that Dewey is “not only my mother, but perhaps one of the better-known artists in Athens County.”Robin explained in the nomination for this Annual Manual feature how Dewey’s cat creations inadvertently came to fruition.“The first cat appeared much the same way as one might see an apparition in a cloud… She rolled out a slab of clay, and it looked like a cat to her,” Robin said. “She ran with it, and 27 years later the cats are as popular as ever.”The ceramic cats are handmade of clay using a process called sawdust or “pit firing.” The exact coloring of the cats is purely accidental.“The color is due to the sawdust firing,” Mary Gates Dewey said. The firing produces a spectrum of white, gray and black, and occasionally a little bit of brown.Dewey could not comment on the exact time she devotes to making each cat. “I really can’t answer that because there’s so many steps,” she said.The feline creations are priced between $70 and $390, and vary in size from 8 to 22 inches in height, Dewey said. “They’re all sizes,” she added.Dewey’s latest project is a series of one-ofa- kind ceramic sculptures, which Dewey calls “hanging-bead sculptures.” They are of various lengths, with one being at least 6 feet tall.Prior to making cats, Dewey sold wheelthrown functional ceramics – including bowls and casserole dishes – at her studio and gallery in Zanesville. She also taught ceramics and sculpture at Muskingum College in nearby New Concord in the late ’70s.She then moved to Athens and lived a somewhat untraditional, simplistic lifestyle – at least by today’s standards – in the Appalachian foothills.“Some friends helped me build a house out in the woods,” Dewey said. Her home had no electricity or running water, though she had a gas well on her property, which provided her with free heat and gas.Robin Dewey wrote that her mother built her house and studio “‘off the grid’ on her 40 acres of woods.” Her home was a mile from the nearest road, and she had no flush toilets. (She has since moved, and yes, she now has flush toilets.)As for the gas well of her past residence, Mary Gates Dewey said with a laugh, “I wish I had it now!”But how did she make do without what seems like necessities?“I just did,” she said, adding that it in fact “wasn’t bad.”Along with the change of scenery the move offered, Dewey made a change in her technique around the same time – from wheel-thrown to hand-built. This was the time when she really began dedicating herself to ceramics. Soon after, she made her fi rst cat – and the rest is history.Mary Gates Dewey didn’t always live in Ohio – in fact she grew up in southern Florida until she graduated from high school. She then left the warm weather behind to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art, where she majored in painting. She was then introduced to ceramics at the University of Alabama.For more info on the ceramic cats, visit deweystudio.com. For more info you can contact Dewey directly at the studio by calling (740) 594-5349 or by e-mail at destudio@ frognet.net. There is also a Web site for the studio at deweystudio.com, although Dewey cautioned that the site is a little outdated. Calling or e-mailing is probably your best bet.

14 x 14 x 1 in

10 lb