mosaic collaborations

Patricia Karr &
Pamela Studstill

Though she grew up in a family filled with artists, Patricia Karr chose to study and major in subjects that she felt she was ‘supposed’ to pursue, like business and law. The desire to create and appreciate art was infectious, however, and Patricia began collecting original artwork,
even when she was too consumed by business endeavors to develop her own work.

Patricia’s greatest influence from childhood to this day is her sister, Pamela Studstill. Pamela majored in art at UT San Antonio and was prolific in the art quilt world in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Her art quilts are held and coveted in many private collections and are in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and the Texas Quilt Museum.

In the mid 1990’s, Pamela became interested in ceramics, challenged by the permanency of the medium as compared to fabric. After taking some workshops at the Hill Country Arts Foundation, Pamela set forth in her own direction to create textured, layered, detailed and colorful vessels, flowers, and tiles.

Pamela invited Patricia to take a ceramic tile workshop at the HCAF and a mutual love for mosaics developed that the two have carried forward to create unique and fanciful mosaic panels and statuary. The two are notably influenced by the decorative excesses of Capodimonte porcelain, an Italian style of ornamental ceramics dating from the mid 18^th
century. The collaborative process between sisters when creating these beautiful and intricate art forms is an extraordinary joy for them both.