BARBARA SATTERFIELD

Barbara Satterfield is a clay artist who has exhibited work in regional and Arkansas group shows and juried competitions since 1995, including the Arkansas Arts Center Delta Exhibition, Arts and Sciences Center for Southeast Arkansas, Fort Smith Regional Art Museum, Historic Arkansas Museum, The Galleries at Library Square, Fenix Gallery Fayetteville, and the South Arkansas Arts Center. Her artwork has received awards, has been recognized in the media, and is in private and public collections. Her work and her practice has been featured in video presentations sponsored by the Arkansas Arts Center (A/MFA) and the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Satterfield earned her BA in Theater from Hendrix College, a BFA in Studio Ceramics from the University of Central Arkansas, an MFA in Studio Ceramics at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., receiving the Bernard Glassman Prize, and her MA in Museum Studies at the same institution. She taught Art Museum Studies as faculty in the UCA Department of Art and directed UCA’s Baum Gallery of Fine Art for ten years after which she has shared her expertise by conducting art workshops for teachers and agencies, managed statewide art exhibition tours, and served at the officer level on the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Committee of One Hundred to Benefit the Ozark Folk Center. She and her husband, Jim Volkert, have four children and seven grandchildren spread from the east to west coasts and in between.

“My ongoing fascination is with nature. Certainly color, but more so the form of things: stones, shells, buds, pods, nests—the bend of a stick, the curve of a vine, and growths of all kinds. My fascination is reflected in a collection of found objects that began when I was ten years old and continues to this day—often providing the inspiration for my work.

I am drawn to ceramic vessels and sculptures from ancient civilizations whose artists integrated natural forms into their compositions. When I coil-build, I feel connected to this history even while pursuing a contemporary interpretation of the medium. My nonfunctional pieces are informed by such objects and affirm the archetypal nature of ongoing human fascination and identification with the diversity, fragility and tenacity I observe in nature.”