Berkshire Botanical Garden’s first art exhibition of 2023 features the work of Karlene Jean Kantner. The show, “Volumes,” will include nearly two dozen of her works. It runs in the Leonhardt Galleries from January 20 through February 26.
The opening reception on Friday, January 20, will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Kantner will give an artist talk in the gallery on Saturday, February 11, at 3 p.m.
Raised in Montana, a denizen of the outdoors, Kantner began her artistic undertakings as a child making fresh batches of hand-pressed, sunbaked “mud cookies” that looked good enough to eat. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Montana and teaching art to children for several years, she came East with her partner, Chris Powell, a West Stockbridge native.
Once settled in the Berkshires, among her first acts was digging out a pit fire oven — that is to say, an open-air fire pit about a foot-and-a-half deep by four-feet wide in which she bakes much of her artwork, turning clay to ceramic. Her pit-firing is limited to Massachusetts’ open-air brush-burning season (from January 15 and May 1). The rest of the season, Kantner uses an electric kiln.
But she prefers the pit fire process, in which she places her clay creations directly onto burning coals before she slowly builds the fire again until it’s raging. The process requires care, patience and the thoughtful tolerance that everything could go horribly wrong. Indeed, not all pieces survive the firing process.
To learn more, visit www.berkshirebotanical.org
