Karen Russo Awarded Best in Show in Fusion Art’s 6th Annual Skies Art Exhibition

Karen Russo is a figurative sculptor who lives and works in the lush green foothills of western Oregon. She chooses clay as her primary medium because of its malleability, capacity for transformation, and direct connection to the earth.

As Karen sculpts, she allows each piece to unfold intuitively. The beauty of working in clay, is that she can continuously manipulate the form. It is a lively dance of adding and subtracting the material. Once the figure is established, it is cut into multiple sections, hollowed, compressed and reassembled. Karen then carves patterns and textures into the clay before it undergoes a slow bisque fire that can last a week or more. 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.

“In clay and paint, I work with paradoxical themes embodied in the maternal archetype and landscape. The resulting sculptures depict women that seem to originate from different geographical origins, but all of which 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.”

See her award winning artwork and all the winners and finalists at https://www.fusionartps.com/6th-annual-skies-art-exhibition-november-2022/ or click the link in our profile.