Catherine Monahon’s art class of choice as a freshman at Loomis Chaffee was painting. It was full. Catherine was put into a ceramics class. 

The 2008 Loomis graduate recalls being upset at the time. Ceramics? What is that all about? It was not part of the plan. Yet the experience would help mold Catherine, largely due to art teacher Walter Rabetz, who died in November 2019. 

Clay would become Catherine’s good friend, Mr. Rabetz her mentor.  

“He really filled the studio with his presence and his energy and made it feel like home for me,” Catherine said in a recent interview. “His constant encouragement throughout the four years at Loomis really had a lasting impact. Any time I wanted to do something in the studio, he would be, ‘Go for it, try it,’ just fully enthusiastic.”  

Three years ago, Catherine was working as copywriter for a wholesale distributor of art supplies and arrived at an idea to create an educational podcast. The pilot episode served as a final project in her podcast training. It was about clay, which meant Mr. Rabetz was top of mind. They had lost touch, and Catherine wanted to thank him for all he had done.  

When Catherine found out he had died, the podcast shifted its focus. Rather than taking an educational tone, the podcast became more about relationships, “the intimacy of art-making and how working with your hands can connect you to your sense of self and your place in the world.” A musician friend, Elizabeth de Lise, did an original piece of music for the episode and continued to provide music for subsequent “Material Feels” podcasts. Each episode is about a different material and features an artist who uses that material to talk about their experiences.  

For now, Catherine has paused the podcasts to concentrate on teaching ceramics classes out of her garage in California, and that business has done well with 200 students since last March. The seed for such a business was planted when her friend Steve gave her a pottery wheel for Christmas in 2020. She was feeling isolated working from home and said the only thing that calmed her was thinking of centering clay on a wheel. That gift helped lead her to buy more wheels and start her business.  

“I have learned so much from my students and feel so grateful for the people who have found me,” Catherine said. “What I want to keep moving toward is curriculum that sort of dabbles in the healing arts and helps people get connected to their bodies and their feelings. 

“I am noticing in the studio this is so good for so many people, so healing and centering, and it quiets their mind and builds confidence. People are shocked when they can create stuff, which makes me happy but also sad because — and this is why I made my podcasts — I think creativity is a human right, and it’s not accessible to everyone in our society to have the time, the materials, and support to make things. It's a privilege and should be a right … I think about this stuff a lot and get emotional about it. We all need more tactile experiences.” 

Catherine graduated from Connecticut College in 2012 and came back to Loomis in 2014 as a visiting artist. 

“It was awesome,” Catherine said. “Being back in the RAC [Richmond Art Center] was good; it was special to be back in the building that felt like home for four years. I loved being back in the clay studio and seeing students in the same place I was at their age.” 

Catherine incorporates music into ceramics classes. It’s all part of getting the mind and body working together, especially because learning how to center clay on a potter’s wheel and start molding it can be challenging. After a while, it goes from aggravating to satisfying. But there are a lot of moving parts between the clay, the spinning wheel, and your hands. 

“The clay begins listening to you, but at first the clay bosses you around a lot,” Catherine said. “It feels like you’re sort of fighting with a pig in mud.” 

That is where the music comes in, when working with the wet clay, then trimming the dried, hardened piece. 

“When you’re throwing the clay on the wheel, it’s really chaotic and you kind of need a rhythm and a little joy, get you out of your head,” Catherine said. “The music for trimming is much more Zen and relaxing.” 

The pig has been wrestled to the ground.