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p PAGE 27 • SPRING 2011 BY JOCK HILDEBRAND
KAREN RYER’S PASSION FOR STONE
BY JOCK HILDEBRAND
“ONCE I MET STONE, IT CHANGED SOMETHING IN MY LIFE, TOTALLY, COMPLETELY”.
Karen Ryer has been a stone sculptor for 10+ years. She and her partner own Stone Sculptors Supplies, an online sculpture supply store that ships stone and sculpture around the world. Living just outside of Guerneville, California in the wooded countryside, one would think that Karen and her partner Patricia are leading the bucolic lifestyle, but in fact theirs is a busy life, full of teaching, organizing classes, traveling the world to meet with suppliers, shipping and receiving stone, running the store front, running a gallery, as well as finding time for Karen to indulge in her true passion, that of cutting stone. I asked her how she found the time for her sculpture. “If you are blessed with the kind of energy I have been blessed with, I can put in 6 to 8 hours a day in the business, then spent 4 hours carving.” Karen’s sculptures are mostly in the 50 to 300 lb range. Once completed, they move to the Withywindle Gallery in Guerneville, or are shipped off to clients.
But it is Karen’s almost evangelical zeal that fascinates me. As I talk to her I come to realize that she wants to bring the art of stone sculpture to everyone. Her storefront is her vehicle to make this manifest. From the Italian carving tools that she imports and sells, to the wonderful quality stone she imports, Karen feels that the supplies she sells must first meet her standards as a sculptor before she sells to anyone else. Her passion leads her to teaching children how to carve in schools, and she supplies the school materials for this endeavor pretty much at cost.
Karen Ryer
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