NEW YORK, NY.- Laurel Gitlen congratulates to Kate Newby on her first permanent public commission, The Sound of Trees, now on view in the Arrivals Terminal of the Portland International Airport (PDX).
The Sound of Trees is comprised of more than 1,600 handbuilt ceramic tiles and spans 75 feet. From a distance the work is an exhilarating abstract field of continuous colors and textures, while up close the richly textured surface holds the topographic impressions of pine needles, leaves, and puddled glass melted into the crags and depressions in the clay.
Over several years, Newby developed this work collecting natural and found materials with students, artists and community members in Oregon and then used these elements in the making, glazing and firing of the tiles in her Texas studio. The complex surface relays the marks and imprints of the Oregon landscape and Newby’s hands and body as she worked directly on the clay…