Karen Theisen

The river rocks, my primary material, are found in the desert surroundings where I reside. The shapes of my armatures that are the basis of my sculptures are formed by weaving wire over hand-made clay forms and mimic shapes found in the natural world.

The empty space in the sculptures, spaces between the rocks, are a key element of the pieces. They not only contribute to an optical illusion of the pieces floating in space, they also represent the loss of the natural world through disasters like droughts, fires, storms, and flooding caused by climate change that have become part of our everyday lives. The work speaks to what will endure, the rocks that are eternal and indestructible, while simultaneously asking how we will protect our most valuable resource, our natural world.