Metal sculptor Grace Cathey was only 18 years old when she left her childhood home in Florida and came to Western North Carolina. “I moved with a group of friends,” says Grace. “I needed an adventure.” She next says what most of us have heard so often from others who’ve moved here: “When I landed in the mountains, I knew I would never leave. My heart was here. I knew I had come home.” She bounced around a bit—first Hendersonville, then Sylva, and finally Waynesville, which she felt suited her best.

It wasn’t metal work, however, that drew her to enroll at Haywood Community College, but rather weaving. After finishing the professional crafts course there in 1979, she threw herself into weaving custom rag rugs and tapestry wall pieces using recycled fabrics. Despite her passion and obvious talent, weaving remained only a part-time job.

Fast forward a few years and Grace is again in school, having received an “emerging artist” grant from the Haywood County Arts Council. She used the grant to study at Western Carolina University. “I felt so fortunate receiving that grant … and validated, like I might have a chance in the arts.” Her art career was picking up speed, but not yet in the direction that would shape her life for years to come.

That happened when a good friend asked her to take a class, any class, with her. “So in 1995, I signed us up for a welding class at Haywood Community College,” says Grace. She chose welding because “I wanted to make some Christmas gifts for my family that year.” It wasn’t however, her first introduction to metal.

“My father’s father was a metalsmith in Croatia. He made the ladles and knives we used every day in our home. I was always fascinated by the fact that my grandfather actually made those beautiful tools.

Creativity was a mainstay in her childhood home. “I remember when I was 10 or 12 my father making a small forge out in the yard and helping me dangle pop bottles into the flames, melting them, and then turning them into works of art. My father was very inventive that way,” she continues. “He once made gas lights to illuminate the entire picnic area beneath a big oak tree in our backyard.”

After completing the welding course, Grace was hooked on the medium. “Oh, I loved how forgiving it is and how tough it is. Working with metal clicked with the way my mind works, how things are put together, in layers, in the round.”

She explains, “For me, words don’t register as quickly as shapes and colors. When I see shapes and colors, however, an area in my brain starts flashing with excitement. Then the mechanical side of my brain kicks in as I figure out how to make a sculpture look like what I was envisioning.”

Where does she derive the inspiration for a piece? “Nature,” she answers succinctly, quickly adding, “and a customer needing a piece for a certain spot.” She says her work used to be evenly divided between commissioned pieces and items she created for sale in her gallery. “It’s interesting though,” she says, “with the recession, my commission work is now much greater than it’s ever been.” The day I visited her Waynesville gallery, there was a slow but steady stream of people coming through the door. She greeted each by name, including those who stop by just once or twice a year as they pass through town.

Metal is a cold medium that Grace Cathey makes decidedly warm and inviting.