Karen Searle

 

I create objects using materials such as thread, wire, fabric, handmade paper, and mixed-media assemblage. I am interested in form as a container for thoughts, emotions, desires and archetypal imagery. I am inspired by  folk art, ritual objects, and traditional textiles. Nature is also a  primary source of inspiration, imagery, and renewal for me.

I have been fortunate to exhibit my work often, both in the US and abroad. I have teaching experience, art-related business experience, have done production work and commissions, and have also had a career in publishing.

As a long-time Mentor I can assist a protégée to focus  and offer support  on her journey to discovering her authentic expression as she faces the obstacles along her path.  I look forward to working with a protégée who wishes to deepen her essential expression, whatever her preferred media might be.

Artist’s Statement

Entanglements with fiber have preoccupied me during the past 25 years. My art works are inspired by womens’ bodies, womens’ lives, and womens’ histories.  I use the tools and techniques of domestic textile-making, or ‘women’s work,’ to assert the feminine view. The ritual of a repetitive handwork process is meditative and honors my connections to female ancestors and the divine feminine.

I explore light, form, and volume in objects that combine soft materials with hard and delicacy with strength, disrupting preconceived categories of “domestic works” and “fine art.”  My sense of humor may  also permeate the work.

My Torso forms originated from my interest in the Jungian concept of the body as a container for aspects of the self.  My wire forms resemble line drawings in space: their intricate shadows impart an impression of life and movement.  Other works arise out of  my interests in attaching unlike materials together, and in finding new uses for discarded materials.