미국에서 활동 중인 케이트 맥도웰(Kate Macdowell)은 작업을 통하여 현대에 인간이 환경에 끼치는 영향과 자연 생태계의 낭만적이고 이상적인 조합을 표현한다. 작품들은 기후변화, 독성 오염물질 및 GM 작물과 같은 환경적 스트레스 요인들에 대한 것들을 부분적으로 묘사한다. 또한 신화, 미술사, 비유적 표현 또는 문화적 척도를 차용한다. 그녀는 백자토를 이용하여 자연과 인간의 형태를 조합하여 작품을 제작하며, 가끔 속파기 기법을 사용한다. 그녀는 백자만이 가지고 있는 강도와 세밀한 질감표현 뿐만 아니라 빛을 발하고 유령과 같은 느낌 때문에 백자만을 사용한다. 이는 무상과 죽어가는 생태계 속 자연의 파괴되기 쉬움을 강조하며, 역설적으로 수천 년 동안 존재할 수 있는 재료이며 역사적으로 상태와 가치가 높은 것이다.

In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.

I hand sculpt each piece out of porcelain, often building a solid form and then hollowing it out. Smaller forms are built petal by petal, branch by branch and allow me the chance to get immersed in close study of the structure of a blossom or a bee. I chose porcelain for its luminous and ghostly qualities as well as its strength and ability to show fine texture. It highlights both the impermanence and fragility of natural forms in a dying ecosystem, while paradoxically, being a material that can last for thousands of years and is historically associated with high status and value. I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.