Works
  • Karen Shapiro, "Coke Can", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Coke Can", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "French's Mustard", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "French's Mustard", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "Heinz Ketchup Bottle", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Heinz Ketchup Bottle", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "Juicy Fruit", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Juicy Fruit", 2025
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Brown", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Brown", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Green", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Green", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Orange", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Orange", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Purple", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Purple", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Yellow", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Yellow", 2025
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Play-Doh", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Play-Doh", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "Schlitz Beer Can", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Schlitz Beer Can", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter", 2025
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Smucker's Strawberry Preserves", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Smucker's Strawberry Preserves", 2025
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Snickers", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Snickers", 2025
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Tootsie Roll", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Tootsie Roll", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum", 2025
    Karen Shapiro
    "Wrigley's Spearmint Chewing Gum", 2025
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M Peanut Wall Bag w/ Candies", 2024
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M Peanut Wall Bag w/ Candies", 2024
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Prozac", 2024
    Karen Shapiro
    "Prozac", 2024
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Brown", 2023
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Brown", 2023
    Sold
  • Karen Shapiro, "Evening in Paris Perfume Bottle", 2019
    Karen Shapiro
    "Evening in Paris Perfume Bottle", 2019
  • Karen Shapiro, "Good & Plenty" candy box w/ 7 candies, 2019
    Karen Shapiro
    "Good & Plenty" candy box w/ 7 candies, 2019
  • Karen Shapiro, "Shell Oil Bottle", 2019
    Karen Shapiro
    "Shell Oil Bottle", 2019
  • Karen Shapiro, "Hills Bros. Coffee Tin", 2017
    Karen Shapiro
    "Hills Bros. Coffee Tin", 2017
  • Karen Shapiro, "Sudan Sage Tin", 2016
    Karen Shapiro
    "Sudan Sage Tin", 2016
  • Karen Shapiro, "M&M: Yellow"
    Karen Shapiro
    "M&M: Yellow"
    Sold
Biography
“I find an inexhaustible source of fascinating shapers and forms staring at me from all sides.”

“My first recorded attempts at artistic expression were at the ripe age of 5 years or so when I painstakingly painted the adobe brick walls surrounding our house in Tucson. The records of these attempts are the scratchy old home movies taken years ago – the painted images being executed in nothing but tap water and disappearing instantly in the Arizona sun. Years later I majored in art in high school where I began working in clay and continued in this medium as a design major in college. After college and continuing until a year or so ago, my medium changed drastically to a more edible artform in the shape of a long, hard career as a pastry chef.

I am now happily out of the kitchen and back into the ceramics studio where I am finding great joy in working in a sculpture style which is new for me. In earlier years, my emphasis was on abstract form – believing, of course, that I was redefining the perfect form. Upon reentering the ceramic studio at the College of Marin, under the tutelage of the ever-inspiring energy and talent of Anne Peet Carrington, I naturally tried to take up where I had left off many years ago. I was immediately frustrated and disappointed to see that those “perfect” forms would no longer come from my hands. Instead, I was drawn to the form of a milk carton, then to my espresso pot from Italy, next to an artichoke from the market – in other works, I found an inexhaustible source of fascinating shapers and forms staring at me from all sides.

Now I find myself jumping around from vegetables to nail polish bottles and lipsticks, to crayons and on and on…and in addition to these wonderful objects I have alsodiscovered the raku kiln. The excitement of reaching into a red-hot environment with tongs, of the flaming bucket, even the choking smoke, and finding results I never dreamt of – always changing, always so much to learn – has given me back an enormous energy, appetite and passion for my work. It’s an adventure I’ve just begun, and I look forward to many fulfilling years and ever more exciting results which I hope to share with as many people as may also find them interesting and fun.”