Clay, Gold & Growing Things
Heartroot
Art by Katie Tudor
White Lake, Michigan
The Artist
I'm Katie Tudor, an artist based in White Lake, Michigan. I've been creating my whole life — it's just how I process the world.
My work lives somewhere between pottery and mixed media. I make things with my hands — clay, paint, whatever the piece needs. A lot of what I create comes from the idea of breaking and rebuilding. Things crack. Things fall apart. But that's not where the story ends.
I'm drawn to kintsugi — the Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with gold. Not hiding the damage, but honoring it. Making the break part of the beauty. That philosophy runs through everything I do, whether it's a vessel on the wheel or paint on canvas.
Heartroot is where all of that lives. The root of it. The heart of it.
Gallery
Growing Things
Fire & Night
Gold & Mending
Kintsugi
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
— Ernest Hemingway
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold. Rather than disguising the damage, it treats the breakage as part of the object's history — something to illuminate, not hide.
This isn't just a technique. It's a way of seeing. Every crack is a story. Every repair is a choice to keep going. The gold doesn't erase what happened — it says this is where I broke, and this is where I'm beautiful.
A vine doesn't just climb a wall — it finds the cracks and grows into them. That's nature doing kintsugi. Gold fills the cracks in broken pottery. Green fills the cracks in stone. Same impulse. Life insisting on the broken places.
That's what Heartroot is. The root of it. The heart of it. The part that keeps growing no matter what.
Get In Touch
Whether you're interested in a piece, want to talk about a commission, or just want to say hello — I'd love to hear from you.
katiejjca@gmail.comWhite Lake, Michigan