Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Kathleen Varnell studied under renowned Haitian ceramist Marcus Douyon at Jackson State University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Art. She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Howard University, Washington, D.C., in 2001, where she studied under Winnie Owens-Hart.  Formerly, Varnell was employed as an Exhibits Specialist (Graphics) with the Office of Exhibits Central, Smithsonian Institution, and most recently as the Curator of Exhibitions at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

The artist has shown her work in solo and group shows across the United States.  Formerly, Varnell was invited to exhibit with a group of artists in “20 Years: A Retrospective at Arts/Harmony Hall Regional Center,” in Fort Washington, Maryland.  Varnell was honored in her hometown as a featured artist at the Mississippi Museum of Art, (Jackson) in “Kathleen Varnell:  Recent Transitions in Clay.”  Varnell was one of one hundred and twenty-two artists exhibiting at her Alma Mater in “A Proud Continuum:  Eight Decades of Art at Howard University.”

Artist Statement

From a little girl playing in the sandy mud of Mississippi back yards, fashioning everything from mud pies to village compounds to a clay artist envisioning myself as a medium through which the ancestors manifest themselves, moving through me to shape and mold the earth into vessels reminiscent of an ancient era. The first time I felt the cool moistness of clay in my hands, I experienced a rejoicing in my spirit. Something inside of me knew this lump of cold, moist earth had been calling my name since my conception. I was to be the medium through which it took shape and was to be molded and reshaped into yet another existence, a new creation of an old and ancient self.