Karen Russo is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning figurative ceramic sculptor. She lives and works in the lush green foothills of western Oregon, USA.
Karen’s studio is located on five acres of land in the hills of western Oregon and serves as a place to create. Over the years, Karen has developed and honed a unique method of layering materials, textures, and color that gives her work a rich, organic quality.
The resulting sculptures depict women that seem to originate from numerous different eras and geographical origins, but all of which explore the tensions of the feminine experience: strength and contemplation, youth and aging, joy and grief, instability and equilibrium, hope and despair.
Through these maternal archetypes, so evocative of the precious earth from which they were formed, Karen hopes to express an eternal optimism for the human spirit in this beautiful, delicate, and chaotic world.
She and her studio are proud members of the National Sculpture Society, Pacific Northwest Sculptors community, and Oregon Potters Association.
Karen Russo Artist Biography
Karen Russo is a figurative sculptor who lives and works in western Oregon. She chooses clay as her primary medium because of its malleability, capacity for transformation, and direct connection to the earth. Karen layers patterns, textures, and color that lends her work a rich, organic quality. She hand builds each sculpture from a solid mass of clay that is hollowed and reassembled. She uses underglazes, casein, and acrylic to lay imagery onto the surface. Her color palette echoes the places that inspire her; from the ocean to the forests, the desert to the mountains, of the extraordinary Pacific Northwest.
Karen Russo Artist Statement
In clay and paint, I work with paradoxical themes embodied in the maternal archetype and landscape. I explore the tensions of the feminine experience: strength and contemplation, hope and despair, vulnerability and resiliency. Through these ancestors so evocative of the precious earth from which they were formed, I hope to express an eternal optimism for the human spirit in this beautiful and turbulent world. Responding to a world out of balance, I seek love and compassion, a counterbalance to hate and violence. Clay is my balm to heal, comfort and soothe. May my sculptures illuminate hope, infinite possibilities and wonder.
Visit Karen at the below links to learn more about her, her art and to buy or commission an artwork from her. Although postponed due to the pandemic, Karen hosts artist workshops at her studio and new registrations are set to re-open in 2022.
| Website |
Click on the Thumbnail Images Below to see the Artwork in a Lightbox
