About Barbarian Enterprises
2011
Barbarian Enterprises is a family business started about thirty years ago by my father, and currently operated by myself, Cat Bates. I grew up spending my summers on Monhegan Island and my winters in Palermo, Maine. Those winters were a little archaic. The cabin we lived in was unfinished, and for a few years there wasn’t really electricity or running water. A wood stove and two-burner propane heater warmed the house.
We kept a herd of angora goats for meat. They were an unruly bunch. I once watched in terror as a buck, named Captain Piss-Gums Junior, launched my father into the air for attempting to trim the beast’s hooves. On another occasion a young goat’s fur froze to the ground on a bitterly cold night. I did not see the execution performed, but my mother left the house with a kitchen knife and we ate fresh meat for supper.
The brutality of nature was never concealed from my siblings and me, but we were shown nature’s beauty as well. On a cold day in early winter my father led me into the woods to show me a mound of dirt. Its surface was unremarkable at first, but he encouraged me to look closer and I saw that a willowy column of ice supported each particle of earth.
Both my parents were artists. They gave my siblings and me access to tools and materials, encouraging us to make toys and playhouses for ourselves. This was a frugal move, but it also gave me confidence in my ability to create.
At approximately thirteen years of age I started to study metalsmithing. I began working as a professional jeweler in 2004, and graduated from Maine College of Art in 2009 with a BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design. I still spend summers on Monhegan, and live in Portland Maine during the winter.
We kept a herd of angora goats for meat. They were an unruly bunch. I once watched in terror as a buck, named Captain Piss-Gums Junior, launched my father into the air for attempting to trim the beast’s hooves. On another occasion a young goat’s fur froze to the ground on a bitterly cold night. I did not see the execution performed, but my mother left the house with a kitchen knife and we ate fresh meat for supper.
The brutality of nature was never concealed from my siblings and me, but we were shown nature’s beauty as well. On a cold day in early winter my father led me into the woods to show me a mound of dirt. Its surface was unremarkable at first, but he encouraged me to look closer and I saw that a willowy column of ice supported each particle of earth.
Both my parents were artists. They gave my siblings and me access to tools and materials, encouraging us to make toys and playhouses for ourselves. This was a frugal move, but it also gave me confidence in my ability to create.
At approximately thirteen years of age I started to study metalsmithing. I began working as a professional jeweler in 2004, and graduated from Maine College of Art in 2009 with a BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design. I still spend summers on Monhegan, and live in Portland Maine during the winter.
