Kade HB: Exploring the Natural World Through Form and Fire

Kade HB Members Exhibition Feature;

For artist Kade HB, clay offers a way to consider how landscapes shape us—slowly and quietly, much like the forces that weather stone. Sculptural forms draw on memories of rocky beaches and tidal pools from childhood on Vancouver Island, as well as later travels through the Southwest and along the coast of northern California. Earlier studies in painting, design, and performance continue to inform a practice attentive to texture, atmosphere, and place.

During a summer ceramics internship at Touchstone, Kade incorporated wild clay from the campus landscape into ongoing surface and firing experiments, connecting the environment of Touchstone to work already rooted in geological observation. Atmospheric firing leaves marks that can’t be fully directed, echoing the natural unpredictability that guides much of Kade’s thinking. In the 2025 Touchstone Members Exhibition, Kade presents a thrown and altered vessel that extends this exploration of landscape and change, grounded in geology, spirituality, and the belief, echoed in Octavia Butler’s words, that “God is change.”

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k.hb.art/ Website: https://khbart.com/

Read more about Kade’s work in this interview by Andrew Thornton, Touchstone Communications Committee member, professional artist, and Co-Owner of Allegory Gallery and Star Cottage Studio.

What is your Touchstone story? How did you first hear about it and what drew you to be involved?

I had the privilege of working as a ceramics studio intern at Touchstone this past summer, and it was my first and only craft school experience! I found out about Touchstone through word-of-mouth while exploring summer opportunities and was drawn to the opportunity to work a job that aligned with my career goals while expanding my studio practice and creative network. I was excited about the variety of workshops offered, along with Touchstone’s rural location and beautiful natural setting. I also appreciated Touchstone’s smaller size as compared to other larger craft schools offering me the chance to potentially engage more meaningfully/closely with workshops and instructors.

Can you tell us about your journey as an artist—where did it begin, how has it evolved?

I’ve been involved with the arts from a young age. In my youth I was very passionate for music and theatre, but by the end of high school my main focus shifted to drawing and painting. I learned traditional oil painting techniques while studying abroad in Italy and Greece during my gap year before undergrad and went on to pursue a B.A. in Studio Art at St Olaf College. The performing arts has remained an important part of my creative practice; I worked in the theater scene shop all through college, designed the sets for several productions and took a number of design and acting courses— these experiences continue to inform the way I visualize space and engage with materials.

Until taking my first clay class during my third year of undergrad, taught by Courtney M. Leonard, I felt certain that painting would remain my primary medium. Since that class, clay has driven every major change in my life and guided me to where I am now.

How do you describe your work(s) in the Touchstone Members Exhibition?  Where did you find inspiration?

My piece in the Touchstone Members Exhibition is one of many thrown and altered vessels I made this summer. As with my current body of work, I draw inspiration from geological weathering patterns and natural monuments seen across the planet, but specifically from my years as a young child on the rocky beaches of Vancouver Island and in my recent visual research travels across the Southwest and along the coast of northern California. I am driven by deep-rooted tactile memories of caressing rock faces, collecting stones, and climbing over tidal pool networks, and perhaps also informed by rock climbing as a sport through middle/high school.

I am interested in the metaphors behind geological processes, how seemingly unchangeable solids can be altered drastically over time by miniscule, accumulative actions. Despite our urges to cling onto ideas of permanence, like these rocks, our bodies are slowly weathered by time and our environments; change is the only constant.

When I sculpt, I think about change, impermanence, death, universal patterns, and collective consciousness. My process is extremely meticulous and tedious, and my artmaking and spiritual practice are one in the same.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler summarizes my present philosophies well: “God is change.”

What’s something unique about your process, materials, or approach?

I like to incorporate wild clay and foraged materials when I can, often in the form of slips/glazes on the exteriors of my forms. This summer I used some clay I gathered along the road that leads up to the top of the hill at Touchstone to formulate a ^6 glaze and have had beautiful results using it as a slip in high-fire atmospheric atmospheres. I loved going for hikes up that trail during my time at Touchstone this summer, basking in the magic of the forest and observing all the different fungi that popped up every time I went. It’s really special to be able to also capture the place where I made the piece in the materials I use.

Atmospheric firing compliments my work both formally and conceptually; the dynamic surfaces created by the path of the flame echo striations in sedimentary rock faces and surrendering my work to the unpredictability of the kiln continues to challenge me to let go.

How do you hope viewers engage with or interpret your work? What would you like them to take away?

I envision my pieces, sculptural and functional, as little worlds for their users/viewers to explore. I love when my pieces cause people to conjure their own memories of places that have shaped them and provide interesting and grounding tactile experiences.

What does it mean to you to be featured in an exhibition at Touchstone?

I am honored! 

Visit the 2025 Touchstone Members Exhibition, on view through December 19, 2025, in the Bea Campbell Gallery at Touchstone in Farmington, PA. Click for gallery hours.