Red Lodge Clay Center Long-Term Resident 2012-13
Karin Solberg, received her MFA from Utah State University in 2003, concentrating on clay fired in soda, salt and wood kilns. Having taught ceramics at universities and community art centers throughout the nation, she settled in Montana, upon completing a residency at the Red Lodge Clay Center in 2013. Karin founded Heist Art & Sundries, a downtown Red Lodge gallery once an old bank, specializing in local artists. She produces art and teaches classes at her Rock and Star Studio, located in the Roosevelt Center, the former elementary school, now a performance and art center.
I create pottery inspired by Asian art, as well as color and pattern observed throughout nature, concentrating on slip and glaze decoration. By combining intriguing components, the viewer interprets a visual quilt based upon a personal relationship with landscape. I produce pottery to celebrate craft, locally produced food and our surroundings. A platter, containing a home cooked meal, initiates community between family and friends. The daily habit of using a handmade object is a worthy ritual in this fast paced, mass produced object filled world. My goal as an artist ultimately is to produce wares that invite art, health and pause in the everyday, enlivening the home, meal, body and mind.