Artist Statement

Karen Terhune

Karen has been carving professionally since graduating from Bellarmine University in 1982. She works primarily in stone using limestone, alabaster, soapstone or marble. Her process is still based in the use of hand tools over machine tools such as grinders and sanders. Karen’s dominate themes during her career have been the female figure, abstract forms and whimsical cat sculptures for which she is best known. The abstract sculptures you see here were all produced this year and show that she is beginning to take those abstract forms and turn them into functional art. Her forms are becoming more sophisticated as they weave together to form the sculptures. The name “GRACE” came about as a title for her abstracts when she decided to let the viewer decide what, if anything, the forms looked like to them. Grace simply means beauty, symmetry and balance.

Karen considers her abstract sculptures to be small explosions of movement that take the viewer every which way while trying to find the beginning or end of a form. Sometimes, while carving, she isn’t sure where they will wind up either but she hopes that you enjoy looking at them.