Karmien Bowman

I enjoy making art and teaching. I am also an arts advocate. My BFA degree is in Painting and Art History and I took a Masters in Ceramics and Metals with a minor in Sculpture from Texas Woman’s University. John Brough Miller, Ishmael Soto, Victor Babu, June Kineko, Don Reitz, Robin Hopper, Rimas VisGirda as teachers and friends are my most influential guides in process, and style, and philosophy.  Miller encouraged experimentation, engineering, and chemistry, to realize an idea by the “bootstraps”. My dad, an engineer for the City of Dallas, taught me a lion’s share of patience and fortitude for any endeavor. Our Mother, a Buckner’s orphan, shared her romanticism. These jewels are largely my legacy now. 

I like natural durable materials, and in recent years, I use mostly bronze and clay making functional and sculptural forms. The expressions are serious commentary, portraits, or whimsical interpretations, all usually experimental. I often feel as if I have been an emerging artist for more than forty years because I like to experiment in materials, form and process, trying to explore where I have never been. The concept for me, usually dictates the materials, which characteristically by their nature, help to convey my message. I have observed a continuity in my life’s seemingly unrelated works lately, of having a focus on moments of transition, or implied apex change.

I have presented pedagogical lectures, ceramic workshops, artist’s talks, and exhibited nationally with awards.  I have been recognized in my field by Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who American Teachers, and I have published articles in the field of Ceramics. And my work has also been included in various articles and books, Clay Times, A guide to Clay in the Recreation Center- City of Dallas, The Mound of Flower Mound, Sweet Flower Mound Land, and From A Slab of Clay, The Extruder Book, ACERS, by Daryl Baird. I have had some significant awards as an artist (Texas Commission on Arts), and professor, including a 2014-15 TCCD, FDL for research and sculpture.