Catherine Vincent MS C&I: Special Education, MA Ceramics.
Working artist and Art Educator
Catherine attended Frederick Community College as an Art Major from 2001-2005, then transferred to Towson University to pursue Art Education. While at Towson, Catherine focused on Drawing and Painting and secondary education. After graduating Summa cum Laude in 2008, Catherine was hired as an art teacher at Urbana Middle School in FCPS Maryland.
In 2009, Catherine began teaching adapted art at Rock Creek School, a 3-21 special education school in FCPS. Catherine developed the adapted art curriculum for the program and acted as consultant to all art teachers in FCPS on adapting art for all learners, including annual workshops for new hires. Catherine began pursuing a Masters in Special Education at Hood College in 2011.
In 2014, Catherine returned to Urbana Middle School as an art teacher, and completed a MS in Curriculum and Instruction: Special Education in 2015. Her capstone project used classroom-based action research on management strategies in the art studio environment to increase artistic production and engagement from ADHD students with 504 plans/IEPs in art class.
In 2016, Catherine began incorporating ceramics into her art units and lessons and taught herself how to fire an electric kiln by reading the manual cover to cover. Thankfully, she began taking graduate Ceramics courses part-time at Hood College in 2018. In 2023, Catherine began teaching Ceramics full time at Urbana High School.
Catherine will complete her MA in Ceramics with a final exhibition at Hood College in Spring 2026.
Artist Statement, MA Ceramics Candidate: “Lifecycles: Pillars of Growth”
Catherine Vincent, MA Ceramics Candidate
Lifecycles: Pillars of Growth
My life has been marked by familial loss: my father died suddenly in 1999 when I was barely 15. Sepsis took my mother in 2016 after an abrupt illness. In 2018, my big brother was diagnosed with a rare heart condition at age 40 and died two months later. In 2025, my teenage bonus-son was threatened by stage 3 Lymphoma and thankfully survived. Living under a shadow of grief and loss influences my ceramic work. I create functional and sculptural gardenware exploring themes of life, growth, rebirth, death, and decay. As a life-long gardener, I view gardening as a metaphor for the human lifecycle and existence itself.
There are 5 pillars of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. We each experience this uniquely as there is no wrong way to grieve, and grief is a continuous experience that comes in waves. My artworks are “pillars of growth”, their creation being my healing process as I continue to process a lifetime of loss. Just as we scour our garden for peeking daffodils in the winter, we must dig for and sow hope when life is bleak.
I have created 4 series of work, based upon four Earthly seasons. Each series is centered around a Gaia sculptural planter/vase. Seasonal blooms and imagery adorn each Gaia bust’s hair and face, with a wreath upon their crowns allowing for cut flowers and adornments. Four correlating seasons of human life are presented as follows: Spring is a child with hope and warmth, Summer is a radiant and confident young adult, Autumn is wise and decaying in middle age, and Winter is a dynamic yet deceased skull. Each Gaia demonstrates that their season of life has unique beauty, growth, blooms, leaves, and inevitable end. Each seasonal series is completed with several underglazed sgraffito-carved planters featuring human skulls with vibrant seasonal blooms, many of which are native to Maryland and my garden. Pairing seasonal plants with skulls reminds us that every season of life has beauty and growth, and every season has a purpose in each lifecycle. I threw familiar planter forms to represent that each season has something to give, and there is always hope for new growth and new life, especially in death.
Artist Statement, Rockstar Portraits and Pop Art
Music, specifically Rock and guitar music, is an essential inspiration for my artwork and daily life. I taught myself how to play guitar at age 13 with music theory books and the sheets/tabs to the entire Beatles catalog. Live, loud music bring me deep comfort, and venues like the 9:30 club feel like home to me. I have played guitar for ~30 years, it is my other artistic outlet and passion.
My Rockstar portraits are a reflection of the musicians that I find most inspiring as a listener as well as to my musical practice as a guitarist. I love creating portraits because I feel they say much about how the artist views the subject, rather than informing about the subject themself. I hold these musicians in reverence. I respect them musically, but also for the lyrics and message within their songs. Favorite lyrics, sayings, and quotes surround each portrait, inviting the viewer to come closer and read.
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Email: cvincentart@gmail.com