Karen Fisher Pottery and Arts
Karen Stevens Fisher is a ceramic artist living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She has had her hands in clay since her earliest days at Greenwich House Pottery’s afterschool program in New York City. In 2015 she turned her energy to creating a life as a full-time ceramic artist and educator. Working with clay is a way to touch the earth: it is meditative practice that opens the mind to the unexpected.
A daughter and granddaughter of artists, she also has an abiding interest in the study of ancient cultures and art history. Her work on several archaeological digs in the Middle East informs her awe for the timelessness of art crafted by hand. The photo below was taken in Cyprus in the late 70's. She has unearthed Bronze-age pottery and felt the throwing rings laid in by an artist long ago.
Her time at the Ghost Ranch Retreat Center in New Mexico nurtured her understanding of the sacredness of clay. Drawn by the elemental nature of clay, she explores form and surface textures with one of the oldest and most versatile materials on earth. She works with stoneware and earthenware clays. Clay speaks in it’s own way, and she likes to listen by experimenting with varying forms and surface treatments.
Teaching gives her the opportunity to share her joy in the creative process with adults and with children. She teaches wheel-throwing and hand-building clay classes at the Community Clay Studio in Chapel Hill, NC. As an Artist in Residence at the Sally Jones Pottery Center in Black Mountain, NC, Karen has enjoyed sharing with a wide variety of spiritual seekers. Karen also serves as a docent at The Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill.
Karen is an active member of the Orange County Artists Guild and the North Carolina ClayWorks Guild, and the Triangle Potters Guild. Her work is available for sale during her open studio events, by appointment, and at the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.
