lives and works in Austin and teaches ceramics at the University of Texas. Kastner uses porcelain to create objects that are modeled on human organs and other biological and botanical forms. Some of the porcelain sculptures are precisely realistic, and seem to be silent, quiescent, and human; others are more abstracted, seeming familiar yet not quite identifiable. Kastner's porcelain surface texture evokes both the fragility and living quality of the forms they represent.