KAREN SILTON, MA

Karen Silton is a professional artist and educator. She has developed expertise in ceramics, mosaics, glass, and painting. Karen’s longtime artmaking and teaching experience includes working with a variety of diverse communities and commissions for collaborative art projects in Los Angeles, such as the Getty and Westfield Corp. Her focus began shifting in 2007 when she began volunteering her art skills to families living in an emergency shelter in Boyle Heights. In order to expand these types of programs, she founded the non-profit Communities Create, who’s mission is to bring high-quality expressive arts programs to those experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles by partnering with Los Angeles County non-profit organizations. Partners include the Downtown Women’s Center, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) and Safe Place for Youth (SPY). She holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology from UCLA, a Master’s degree in 2018 from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Depth Psychology with Specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-psychology and she is currently a doctoral candidate in this program.

Cultivate Inner Hearth
(Ceramic and Fused Glass, 8" High x 8" Wide) 

It is not uncommon to focus on the artwork that artists create and be interested in what inspires them to create it rather than in the constantly evolving inner world of the artist. From my perspective, it is the relationship between the artist's inner and external world that breathes life and spirit into the manifestation of the artwork and fuels the artistic journey over time. That being said, I feel that especially working with the medium of clay, that I am in dialogue with the material and remain open to the unfolding of the process. While making "Cultivate Inner Hearth", I envisioned the womb form, akin to being the center of the body, the hearth of home, the place in female bodies where life grows and is nourished by the mother. What it evolved into was for me an expression of what Thich That Hanh refers to as "Interbeing", the way everything within us is a continuation of all our ancestors. The interconnectedness of all beings. A journey towards forming something whole out of formlessness.

kareaware@gmail.com
www.communitiescreate.org
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