STUMPS
Oh stump. Animate stump
You are bare, you ooze
you are flat but of many jabs
Oh animate texture
I give and make to show the taking
in numbers I understand
that I consume
Would you dread knowing
that you’d be spread apart? -karlene jean kantnor
Karlene Jean Kantner is a ceramic artist whose work celebrates the expanding relationship between her body, landscape and gardens. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Art in Ceramics from the University of Montana where she received honors for community arts engagement and teaching. She moved east to make work and teach classes at the Flower City Arts Center in Rochester NY as an artist in residence. Firing in both an electric kiln and a woodfired open pit, her work ranges in size and integrates plants with deep sentimentality. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture and has most recently shown in a solo exhibition at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. She now has a collection of work available at Reside in Cambridge Massachusetts, and at Art At Kings Oak in Newtown, PA. Currently, Karlene lives and works at Bark Mill Pond in the Berkshires where she continues her research in a land and garden based ceramic practice.