Kara Thomas

Ceramic Artist / Automotive Sculptor

Skills

Plaster Mold Making and Prototyping
Slip Casting
Wheel Throwing
Clay Handbuilding
Electric Kiln Firing
Basic Woodworking
Automotive Clay Modeling
Automotive Highlighting and Clay Surfacing
Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop
Classroom Teaching (College Instructor)
Yoga Instructor

Experience

May 2013 - Present

General Motors, Warren MI- Automotive Sculptor

Jan 2022 -Present

Twist Out Cancer, Chicago IL - Advisory Board Member

August 2017-December 2019

Macomb Community College, Warren MI - Adjunct Instructor (Advanced Clay Modeling)

Education

August 2010 - May 2013

College For Creative Studies, Detroit MI

Bachelors in Crafts - Ceramics

Art Shows

May 2023 - “Resisting Surface and Form” (Group Show) - Red Lodge Clay Center - Red Lodge MT

Oct 2022 - “Dimensions” (Solo Show) - CultureVerse Gallery - Ann Arbor MI

Sept. 2022 - “Craft In the Digital Age” (Group Show) - Henry Ford Estate -Grosse Pointe MI

May 2021 - “Brushes with Cancer” (Group Show) - Austin TX

Nov. 2021 - “Brushes with Cancer” - Detroit Shipping Company Gallery - Detroit MI

Sept. 2020- “Brushes with Cancer” - GM Design Center Gallery - Warren MI

Jan 2020 - “Phases of Us” (Solo Show) - GM Design Center Gallery - Warren MI

May 2018- “Green Space Recycled Materials”- GM Design Center Gallery

Residencies

July 2022

Watershed Center for Ceramic Art

“”Resisting Surface and Form” 2 week group residency organized by Shalya Marsh and Naomi Clement

Special Projects

Nov. 2019

Metropolitan State University, Denver CO, Clay Modeling Workshop

Team taught two-day intensive workshop in which students created a ⅛ scale speed form interpreting a sketch into a clay model

Jan 2020 - Sep 2020

“Twist out Cancer” and “GM Design Center Gallery” Collaboration, Detroit MI

Brushes with Cancer connects artists with people who have been touched by cancer to create a one of a kind art healing opportunity. This connection then results in a piece of artwork about the individual’s experience with cancer.

Connected non-profit organization “Twist out Cancer” with the “GM Design Center Gallery” coordinator and helped facilitate an art show
The Art show, titled “Brushes with Cancer”, was the second of its kind to happen in Detroit. Other “Brushes with Cancer” art shows have been put on through TOC worldwide.