Clara Roundtree Couch, fondly known as “Kitty,” was born in 1921 in Georgia. She graduated from Agnes Scott College with a degree in biology. In her forties, a trip to Europe and exposure to the art she saw at every turn launched her on a quest that changed not only her life, but also the lives of those around her. With spark and enthusiasm, Kitty Couch set out to learn about clay. She enrolled at Sacred Heart College in Belmont, NC, and received a degree in art.  She then pursued her graduate degree at the New York School of Ceramic Art at Alfred University and taught clay at Central Piedmont Community College. The works Couch made continue to calm, inspire, and connect both viewer and maker to the earth.

Couch did most of her work at her Burnsville, NC, home where, in her studio overlooking a pond, surrounded by wildlife, Couch worked to develop what she called "an artful life." She was always seeking to understand herself and the world at large, and in her later life she turned to the spiritual practice of Buddhism.

Of her work, Couch wrote: "It is about my relationship to the natural world of form and its mysterious content." She said that her works “are symbolic containers that seek to replicate the spiral movement of the earth.”

In 2004, Kitty Couch died in an automobile accident in Vietnam, ending an adventurous life, leaving a legacy of connected spiritualism and inspired craftsmanship.

Vita:

Clara Rountree Couch, “Kitty” 1921 - 2004
Sculptor – clay / mixed media.

Education:       Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA
                        Sacred Heart College, Belmont, NC
                        New York School of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY

Selected Awards and Honors:
           Selected one of top female artists in North Carolina,            exhibit “NINE from North Carolina,” National            Women’s Museum of Art, Washington, DC 1989
           North Carolina Artist-in-residence, Headlands Ctr.            for the Arts, Sausalito, California 1992
           Recipient of Arts International Award, Lila B.            Wallace / Reader’s Digest Foundation, Ecuador            project on aging and death 1994
           Featured artist Penland Book of Ceramics, Lark            Books 2003, Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC

Selected gallery exhibit locations:
           Penland Gallery, School of Crafts, Penland, NC
           Gerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC
           Hodges / Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, NC
           Christa Faut Gallery, Davidson, NC
           Zone One Gallery, Asheville, NC
           Green Hill Ctr. for North Carolina Art, Greensboro,            NC
           
Selected Collections:
           Igal and Diane Siber Collection, Laguna Beach, CA
           Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC
           Knight Publishing Company, Charlotte, NC
           Northern Telecom, Raleigh, NC
           First Union Bank, Charlotte, NC
           Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA

Selected Collaborations with Photographer Pinky/MM Bass
           Erda – Birth of New Forms, The Light Factory,            Charlotte, NC 1991
           Collaboration Emerging, Penland School of Crafts,            Penland, NC 1993
           Marked by Collaboration – The California            Experience, Atlanta Photography Gallery, Atlanta,            GA 1993
           Clay Bodies/Vulnerable Wills, The Light Factory,            Charlotte, NC 2001