Karen creates energetic variations of traditional vessels that respect their utility and celebrate life.
Ceramic artist, Karen Franzen was born in Peterborough, Ontario in 1959. She graduated from the Ontario College of Art & Design in 1988 with Honours in Ceramic and Textile Design. Following arts school Karen completed 3-year artist residency in the clay studio at the Harbourfront Craft Studio in Toronto. She was later awarded two Ontario Crafts Council Grants to help her establish a co-operative clay studio.
Since then Karen has exhibited her work across Canada, Bermuda, United States, and Japan. She has also executed numerous private commissions including complete dinner and tea sets, sculptural watering cans, and tile murals.
After more than a decade of working in communal studio spaces, she now loves the quiet beauty of her own studio facing a ravine in Toronto’s East End where she lives with her husband, and eleven year old son. Here she continues to give workshops to share her passion for this venerable ancient utilitarian art form and enjoys making one-of-a-kind and production pieces for galleries, exhibitions, and private individuals.
In celebration of spring Karen will display a collection of her watering cans in the window of Do Bamboo located at 680 Coxwell Avenue just north of the Danforth.
