Katherine Keefer began as a ceramic sculptor in 1973, studying first with Ben Sams in Seattle, Washington. She studied at UC Davis under Robert Arneson and David Gilhooly , and received an MFA in Ceramics and Sculpture from Washington State University, mentored by Patrick Siler.
After exhibiting as a ceramic sculptor for many years her work not only got physically bigger but grew to include other media: metal, wood, earthworks and fiberglass. In this capacity Katherine began thinking not of making objects but of the viewer in relationship to the object. From here it was a small jump to the public art realm and working with whole sites so that the viewer actually becomes part of the piece. Instead of a visual response it becomes a visceral response. The work integrates the site, art and community.
Recently, for a period of three years, Katherine traveled taking images and overlaying the images with words. The words form a screen, the story through which one knows their world. Her work is about standing in the presence of the larger whole.