Hello, my name is Catherine Moon Masters!
Welcome and thank you for your interest in my artwork! This website serves as a portfolio for all of my creative works, including painting, drawing, photography, and writing.
I was fortunate to grow up in the small mountain community of Carbondale, CO, which has a thriving and active culture of arts and craftsmanship. I attended schools all throughout my upbringing that encouraged a relationship with art, and was schooled in a myriad of arts, including drawing, painting, ceramics, photography, graphic design, writing, and even glassblowing.
I attended a wonderful private high school in Carbondale called Colorado Rocky Mountain School; it is a school that highly emphasizes the importance of a relationship to art, the outdoors, and critical thinking. In high school I found a true passion for photography and was an avid photographer. It was rare for me to be without my camera (a Nikon D40 with a 55-200 mm lens, the only camera I’ve ever owned), especially when I was the editor of the yearbook for my final two years in high school.
In college I forwent most creative endeavors and instead threw myself into my academic studies. I graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2015 with a dual BA in Anthropology and Evolutionary Biology & Ecology (with a minor in Religious Studies). The enthusiasm I found for the natural sciences in college continues to inspire and shape my life and my creative process.
After college I lived in Hawaii for a while, and then moved to Green Gulch Farm Zen Center in Marin County, CA. I lived in the San Francisco Zen Center temple system for three years, during which I lived, studied, and worked at all three of their temples: Green Gulch Farm, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the Ventana Wilderness, CA, and City Center in San Francisco, CA.
During my time with SFZC I studied Zen Buddhism and sat a lot (a lot!) of zazen (Zen meditation). I was a garden apprentice at Green Gulch for over two years, and the relationships I built with the land and flowers in that famous organic garden (most especially with the roses!) have deeply impacted my relationship to life. It is during my time with SFZC that creating art became an active practice, with my drawing, painting, and poetry practice especially blossoming.
The impact of my time as a Zen student can be heavily seen and known in my art in all its forms as it is during this time I came to have an intimate relationship of curiosity with my mind (both the conscious and unconscious) and with my life in this world and universe. I developed an almost mystical love for the world and people–and myself as a part of it all. Artwork became a way for me to process this new relationship with my mind as well as celebrate it.
It was during my time at Zen center that I took the Zen lay precepts with my teacher, Furyu Schroedinger. These precepts have deeply impacted the way in which I interact with my world. It is also in this process that I received my dharma name from my teacher, which is MyoGetsu GeiSho, or “Wondrous Moon, Welcoming Life”. It is a name that means a lot to me and continues to guide my practice.
I lived in Lafayette, CO on a little suburban homestead for a couple of years.
I currently live in Madison, WI with my partner and our dog, Miss Daisy Mae.
Thank you for your interest in my creative works!
I gladly accept request for commissions. Just send me a message through the “Contact Me” section 🙂
With love,
Catherine “Wondrous Moon” Masters
(Artist photo by Rin-san Jeff Miller, https://www.instagram.com/jeff.miller.photo/)
Portfolio site for artist Catherine Masters
