Catherine Eaton Skinner

The world holds an intrinsic energy, an ancient equilibrium that sustains life. Across humanity’s memory, this power has been revered, yet in today’s turbulent personal, political, and spiritual climate, balance often feels elusive. Through my work, I seek to remain connected to nature, to others, and to myself, offering a space for reflection, continuity, and renewal. For over sixty years, living and working between Santa Fe and Seattle, I have engaged in painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and poetry. My practice is shaped by the five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and ether, observed from macro to micro and expressed through materials such as beeswax, graphite, oil stick, glass, metals, textiles, paper, and found natural objects. Working in series allows ideas to cross-pollinate, encouraging play, experimentation, and discovery. My notebooks chronicle a lifetime of images, travels, and thoughts, recording both the beauty and the uncertainty of our world. I have worked in humble spaces, endured loss through fire, water, ice, and time, and learned that making art is a form of resilience. Each piece represents a personal truth, an act of optimism and an offering toward a more connected, conscious, and compassionate future.

Catherine Eaton Skinner is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans encaustic, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, and poetry. Her work explores the interconnectedness of cultures and the natural world through elemental archetypes, earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Drawing on these forces, she reflects on balance, transformation, and the fragile systems that sustain both physical and cosmic existence. Raised in the Pacific Northwest, Skinner developed an early sensitivity to landscapes shaped by water, forests, and mountains. She earned a BA in Biology from Stanford University while studying painting with Bay Area Figurative artists Nathan Oliveira and Frank Lobdell. For two decades, she worked as a biological illustrator specializing in marine ecosystems along the Pacific Coast, an experience that continues to inform her integration of science, symbolism, and material process. Skinner is the author of the monograph 108 (Radius Books, Santa Fe), documenting twelve years of studio practice centered on the symbolic resonance of the number 108, and Unleashed, published with Woodland Park Zoo and University of Washington Press. Her work has been presented in 52 solo exhibitions and over 100 group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and is held in numerous public collections, including Seattle University, the Henry Art Gallery, Tacoma Art Museum, and the Museum of Northwest Art. She lives and works between Seattle, Washington, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

2-D, Book Arts, Collage/Mixed Media, Drawing, Fiber Arts, Glass, Painting (all materials), Photography, Printmaking/Lithography, Sculpture, Writing