CLAY
Sculpture
Clay is the foundation of Natalie Cederquist Levin’s sculptural practice. Every work begins here, in the direct modeling of form, where structure, balance, and expression are first discovered. Since the mid-1970s, she has worked with clay using traditional slab and coil methods, time-honored techniques that allow her to build figures from the inside out, with attention to weight, rhythm, and proportion.
Clay serves as the site where form is fully realized, whether it remains as a finished terracotta or becomes the foundation for a work cast in bronze.
Clay and Process
Natalie works with two types of clay, chosen according to whether the clay itself will be the finished work or a preparatory stage for bronze. Ceramic and terracotta sculptures are modeled in water-based clay, shaped entirely by hand and fired in a kiln to create a permanent work. Sculptures intended for bronze are modeled in oil-based clay, which remains flexible and allows for complex poses and structural extension. A mold is taken from the finished model, the clay is removed and reused, and the final form is cast in bronze.
Why Clay
Clay is both responsive and exacting, recording every decision of the hand and tool. It allows Natalie to shape form directly in space—testing balance, refining silhouette, and resolving light and shadow until structure becomes presence. This immediacy is essential to her figurative practice, aligning her work with a classical tradition in which the human figure serves as a primary vessel for expression, emotion, and spirit.
Self Love
Self Love
Clay Sculpture
Self Love is a quiet, powerful meditation on the act of turning inward with tenderness. The sculpture depicts a woman embracing herself, arms wrapped gently around her own body in a gesture of warmth, protection, and care. Her posture is soft, grounded, and intimate, expressing a moment of deep presence rather than performance.
This is not a statement of selfishness, but of self-nurturing. It honors the truth that before we can fully give love, we must first learn how to hold ourselves with compassion. The embrace becomes a sanctuary, an affirmation that we are worthy of kindness, comfort, and devotion from within.
Self Love celebrates the courage it takes to choose oneself, to heal, to rest, and to grow. It is a reminder that the most enduring relationship we will ever have is the one we build with ourselves.
Self Love-Clay Sculpture
Self Love-Reverse
Sea Anemones
Sea Anemones
Clay
Sculpture
Playful, curious, and full of life, Sea Anemones captures the enchanting spirit of these ocean dwellers through color, movement, and form. Each sculpture features undulating tentacles radiating from a central mouth, creating a sense of constant motion—as if gently swaying with an unseen tide.
Their vibrant surfaces and organic shapes invite both the eye and the hand, compelling you to reach out and feel their aliveness. At once whimsical and mysterious, these pieces blur the line between creature and fantasy, evoking the magic of the sea and the joy of discovery.
Sea Anemones-Clay Sculpture
Sea Anemones-Clay Sculpture
Sea Anemones-Clay Sculpture
Sea Anemones-Clay Sculpture
Sea Anemones-Clay Scultpure
Euphoria
Euphoria
Clay Scultpure
Euphoria captures the sensual essence of love, rapture, and pleasure in a moment of complete surrender. A female torso rises with arms extended overhead, her body opening upward as if offering itself to the experience of pure bliss. Her head turns softly to the side, lost in the unconscious reverie of ecstasy.
The form is fluid and expressive, revealing the poetry of the human body in its most vulnerable and radiant state. The gesture speaks of release, trust, and abandon—of being fully present within sensation.
Both intimate and celebratory, Euphoria is an ode to physical and emotional awakening, honoring the sacred power of pleasure as a force of life, connection, and transcendence.
Detail-Euphoria
Side View-Euphoria
Detail-Euphoria
Journey to the Center of My Heart
Journey To The Center Of My Heart
Clay Sculpture
Journey to the Center of My Heart is an allegorical sculpture that speaks to the inward voyage of self-discovery. A sailboat glides forward, writing its path through sculpted waves, symbolizing the courage and movement required to journey toward one’s true self.
At the center of the form, within the chest’s thoracic cavity, rests a three-dimensional abstracted heart—an intimate and powerful representation of one’s inner world. This hidden core becomes the destination of the voyage: the place where truth, vulnerability, and wisdom reside.
The sculpture’s matte, softly textured clay exterior is contrasted with glazed and painted intersections, marking moments of insight, transformation, and growth along the way. Together, these elements express the evolving nature of personal development and the beauty of turning inward to find one’s own heart.
Journey to the Center of My Heart
Detail-Journey to the Center of My Heart
Heart Detail-Journey to the Center of My Heart
Abstract Female Torso
Abstract Female Torso
Clay
Sculpture
This abstracted female torso was inspired by a small lava rock discovered in the Hawaiian Islands. Its flattened depth and quiet voluptuousness became the catalyst for an angular yet sensual two-piece form, capturing the elegant strength and alert presence of a woman’s torso.
Artfully finished with shimmering metallic patinas and cool aqua glacial tones, the surface evokes both molten earth and oceanic light. The interplay of texture and geometry creates a striking balance between power and grace.
This one-of-a-kind sculpture draws the viewer in with its subtle magnetism—an intimate study of form, beauty, and the elemental forces that shape both nature and the feminine spirit.
Abstract Female Torso
Reverse-Abstract Female Torso
Detail-Abstract Female Torso
Bodysuit
Bodysuit
Clay Sculpture
Bodysuit is a striking and thought-provoking sculpture that merges realism with metaphor. A naturalistic male torso is rendered with expressive muscularity and anatomical strength, yet its realism is interrupted by a surprising detail: a zipper descending down the center of the chest.
This unexpected element transforms the figure into an allegory of embodiment itself. The zipper suggests that the body is something we step into—an outer garment worn by the soul for the duration of a lifetime. Beneath the physical form lies the essence of who we truly are.
Both playful and philosophical, Bodysuit invites reflection on the temporary nature of the physical body and the deeper, enduring journey of the soul. It is a reminder that our bodies are not who we are, but the vessels through which we experience the world.
Bodysuit
In Process-Bodysuit
Bodysuit
The Celestial Couple
The Celestial Couple
Clay
Sculpture
This sculptural pairing reimagines the classical Greek ideal through a contemporary spiritual lens. The winged male and female torsos suggest divine guardians — beings who exist between mortal and immortal realms. Finished in a veined marble patina, the surface recalls ancient statuary and sacred architecture. Together, the figures represent the eternal balance of masculine and feminine energies and the ascended potential of the human form…. reminders of who we once were and who we may become.
Abstract Female Torso
Reverse-Abstract Female Torso
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Reverse-Abstract Female Torso
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Reverse-Abstract Female Torso
Detail-Abstract Female Torso
Quantum Leap
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Quantum Leap
Clay Sculpture
A whimsical crowned frog sits in full lotus, blissfully awakened, finger pointing skyward in the universal gesture of realization. Radiant with color and joy, this playful figure symbolizes the moment consciousness breaks through limitation and makes a quantum leap into expanded awareness — where wonder, insight, and possibility are born.
Quantum Leap
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Quantam Leap-Detail