An Ohioan her entire life, Karen Feltham has lived in  Ashland, Canfield, Kent, Dublin and Delaware before settling in Rushsylvania.  She ended up in Logan County in 2000 when she and her husband, George, completed construction on their “retirement home” which included Karen’s “studio” and also lots of land to indulge in her other love…gardening.

Karen is really an eclectic artist and has loved all types of arts and crafts throughout her life.  When she attended the Ohio State University in the late ‘60’s, she was majoring in Fine Arts Education.  However, due to sage advice, she changed her major and became and Occupational Therapist, a career in which she worked for over 40 years.  Throughout the occupational therapy curriculum however, she was able to take art courses including art history, ceramics, and wood working.   For those of you who don’t know, occupational therapy uses activities to assist in rehabilitating children and adults with disabilities.   In 2007, she retired from the field.

During her schooling at Ohio State University, Karen really came to love her ceramics courses, but put that on hold to pursue her career and raise a family.  During those years she indulged her artistic tendencies in miscellaneous arts and crafts that she could compress in between the career and family activities.  “After retiring and moving to my Logan County home (with the studio), I was able to once again squeeze the moldable earth between my fingers as well as develop my gardening knowledge and experience.”  It was from other gardeners that she learned how to make the sand castings and hypertufas.  Combining ceramics, concrete work and gardening has been a natural for Karen, and she loves every minute.

You can see more of Karen’s work HERE.