Karen Bell

Karen brings her love of ceramics and respect of our natural world to animails that are not usually considered important. She keeps live models and also works from photographs. Researching each species lead to sculptures that may include habitat, life cycle or food source of each. Karen brings together the spiritual qualities of clay, the animals, the environment, and my own vision. With these sculptures she hope that viewers will not only enjoy the art but feel the need to learn more about our natural world and the fascinating interdependence of us all.My sculptural subjects include the usually overlooked “canary species”…amphibians, reptiles, insects, bats, and their habitats. The sculptures are hand built, high fire stoneware with application of slips, oxides, high fire and low fire glazes and under glazes. Cactus spines, fur, wool, leather , feather pieces and semi precious stones maybe inlaid to enhance the array of textures and form that make these pieces artistic statements as well as incredibly realistic sculptures.