About William Catling

“Clay is alive. The role of the artist is to work in tune with the life of the materials. The crack in the clay is a gift to be received. The kiln is like Christmas, always rich with gifts unexpected. Humanity is bound by a common spirit to be rejoiced with, mourned for and shared in. Advanced technology can be dangerous, to be handled with gloves, saving the skin for contact with things elemental in nature. The real work of the artist is always in the studio. Leave politics and activism to the politicians and the activists. Our art is the work of our lives. Don’t spend too much time in galleries and museums, they can confuse your personal vision. Balance: stay healthy inside and out of the studio.”

From an early age, William Catling discovered a fascination with clay. On warm summer afternoons, he shaped bowls, cups, and teapots from purple-gray earth gathered from freshly cut trenches, inventing elaborate outdoor rituals that sparked his lifelong engagement with the material.

Catling’s early love of clay endured even as he pursued painting in his teenage years and later enrolled at San Francisco State University in the early 1970s, where he worked toward a Bachelor of Arts degree. A defining moment came during a required ceramics course with Professor Joe Hawley. At the class’s first critique, Hawley challenged students to move beyond producing functional objects and instead create work of personal significance, objects that tested the expressive and structural limits of the material. Taking this challenge to heart, Catling purchased 100 pounds of sculpture clay and committed himself fully to sculptural exploration.

The following semester, he studied under Stephen DeStaebler, whose mentorship most profoundly shaped his artistic development. That mentorship grew into an apprenticeship, and in 1981 Catling entered the master’s program in sculpture under DeStaebler’s guidance, beginning a decade of close study and collaboration.

From these formative years emerged a philosophy that continues to guide his practice: 

“Clay is alive. The role of the artist is to work in tune with the life of the materials. The crack in the clay is a gift to be received. The kiln is like Christmas, always rich with gifts unexpected. Humanity is bound by a common spirit to be rejoiced with, mourned for and shared in. Advanced technology can be dangerous, to be handled with gloves, saving the skin for contact with things elemental in nature. The real work of the artist is always in the studio. Leave politics and activism to the politicians and the activists. Our art is the work of our lives. Don’t spend too much time in galleries and museums, they can confuse your personal vision. Balance: stay healthy inside and out of the studio.” - William Catling

These principles inform both his studio work and his teaching. As a professor at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, he brings decades of rigorous practice to the classroom, experience that includes mixing clay, making and moving monumental sculptures, transporting and installing exhibitions, and sustaining a disciplined and rigorous studio life.

Catling’s work has been influenced by significant figurative sculptors, including Stephen DeStaebler, Alberto Giacometti, Robert Arneson, Manuel Neri, and Viola Frey. Within this lineage, he remains dedicated to the tradition of figurative sculpture as a life’s work, shaping clay into forms that reflect vulnerability, resilience, and the enduring complexities of the human experience.