Kautenburger is a maker, beekeeper, self- trained naturalist, and dreamer of botanical life. The beauty and the poetry that he reacts to in the natural world have a temporality to them, like an ephemeral vernal pool, and this is informing the direction of recent explorations – such as his hammered copper river stone templates, and cyanotype recordings of the curvature of trees.

He is also a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art, teaching in the Foundation program, and leads an Environmental Art Engaged Practice course, which is a partnership between the Port of Cleveland, The Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve, and Cleveland Metroparks.

Trained initially in painting and printmaking at Kent State University, he later received an MFA in ceramics at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. But, prior to that, he assisted Cleveland artist Ed Mieczkowski, fabricating all of his sculpture, constructions and most of his paintings during a three – year time frame. The artist values that experience as being critical in influencing his sensibilities as an artist.

Leaving academia behind, Kautenburger was a carpenter, working for a historical preservation contractor in Philadelphia, restoring historical structures on Boathouse Row, Bartram Gardens, and several 18c domestic spaces. At this time, he began to design and make architectural tiles for a design build firm in Philadelphia and produce interior ceramic tiles for other clients.

Always curious and evolving, Kautenburger has exhibited regionally and nationally, and is a recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, as well as a Creative Workforce Fellowship in 2016.