Kathee Purdham - July Featured Artist

For July, Catalyst is proud to highlight Kathee Purdham, a multidisciplinary artist whose

creative life spans decades, mediums, and entire artistic eras. Kathee’s work today

centers on her distinctive copper and stone trees--sculptural pieces that merge

wirework with carefully chosen rocks. “I’m a rockaholic,” she laughs, explaining

how she climbs hills of rainbow cobblestone to find the perfect base for each tree.

Her process blends craftsmanship and intuition: drilling into stone with diamond

bits, shaping copper by hand, and securing each element with the same meticulous

attention she learned from her father, an accomplished jeweler who once made an

abalone bracelet “from scratch.”

Art runs deep in Kathee’s family. Her sister is a skilled oil painter, and Kathee

admits the sibling rivalry pushed her to explore nearly every medium she could

find--silverwork, macramé, pine needle baskets, photography, mosaic, soapstone

carving, and more. “Crafting has always been my sanity valve,” she says,

reflecting on years spent balancing fulltime banking with a thriving commercial art

career. At one point, she sold to 32 stores and worked 40 shows a year, but

eventually stepped away when mass production overshadowed joy.

Today, Kathee is in a season of transition. The rocks are getting heavier, the studio

is being reorganized, and she’s searching for her next creative challenge--perhaps

painting, perhaps something entirely new. What remains constant is her devotion to

making things that feel meaningful, tactile, and alive. “I’m ready for a new

inspiration,” she says. And knowing Kathee, it’s already waiting around the corner.