Visions in Clay 2025

Judy Catambay
Website - https://arboretum-artworks.com/artist.php?a=judyc
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/judylcat
Judy Catambay is a California-based sculptor, painter, muralist, and educator. She studied fine art at San Jose State University and Sheffield Polytechnic School of Art. Though she began primarily as a painter, she was drawn to ceramics for its tactile immediacy and endless possibilities for shape, surface, and texture. Judy exhibits her work throughout the region and is also an art educator, teaching in schools, community programs, and workshops. She is committed to helping others find their visual voice while nurturing creativity and personal expression. This commitment extends to her collaborative community murals, where she believes in art’s power to foster shared creativity and a sense of belonging.
Rooted in the rhythms of the natural world, Judy’s work reflects the cycles of growth, renewal, and decay, exploring life’s transience and the connections that sustain us. Her sculptural ceramic work, infused with a painter’s sensibility, combines layered glazes, rich textures, and saturated colors, each piece becoming a dynamic dialogue between artist and material. She embraces the unexpected with intention, allowing moments of chance and organic irregularities to shape narratives that emerge naturally. The owl, a recurring figure in her work, carries the wisdom of those who have journeyed before us, offering a steadfast presence in the face of adversity. Her piece “Border Wings” was created in response to ICE’s unjust actions tearing families apart. It reflects the tension between flight and fracture—wings meant to carry migration and hope, yet constrained by barriers that stop the journey. An ancestral owl, adorned with migrating butterflies above barbed wire, stands as a quiet force of wisdom and resilience. In her art, she explores the world’s fragility and impermanence, conveying the importance of connection and the need to protect what sustains us and our shared journey.

Border Wings
Ceramic: paper clay, low fire, underglazes and glazes
25" x 5" x 3"
2025
$600






