Karen Mcquown lived in Burback, California all of her life until the death of her mother prompted her to move to Bend in March of 2022. She joined Mud Lake one month after moving and immediately began to visit the studio on a daily basis. Her relationship with clay spans back to 1979 when a customer came into the tennis shop where she worked and offered to teach her pottery in exchange for restringing their tennis rackets. She went on to spend 20 years teaching ceramics to adults with disabilities until she retired in 2020. Now she likes to get outside and enjoy the environment, and she hopes to go morel hunting for the fleshy version of her ceramic fungi. 

Karen likes to make people smile and her work is whimsical and silly; she likes being different. She used to do more functional, more “normal” pieces, but she always made them weird. About 5 years into her journey with clay, an arm injury prompted her to switch from wheel throwing to hand building as a primary mode of creating. Her sculptural work communicates her love of nature and animals, the birds the trees the leaves the snails the snakes. Karen aims for her work to be accessible and enjoyed by a broad audience. 

Karen has two daughters and a son, none of whom do pottery. Her work can be found in the Mud Lake Studios shop.