UHCL artist creates bowls, holds Bowl-A-Thon

By Online Editor Last updated Mar 20, 2014 134 0

University of Houston-Clear Lake Art Gallery Assistant Karen Fiscus will complete 100 bowls for the 10th Annual Empty Bowls Houston, a grassroots effort by artists throughout the country to feed the hungry in their communities. Pictured is Fiscus surrounded by several of her bowls before the final glaze firing. (Photo: Jenny Howard/UHCL Communications) — University of Houston-Clear Lake Art Gallery Assistant Karen Fiscus will complete 100 bowls for the 10th Annual Empty Bowls Houston, a grassroots effort by artists throughout the country to feed the hungry in their communities. Pictured is Fiscus surrounded by several of her bowls before the final glaze firing. **(Photo: Jenny Howard/UHCL Communications)**

HOUSTON (March 10, 2014) — University of Houston-Clear Lake Art Gallery Assistant Karen Fiscus is using her artistic talent to support The Houston Food Bank in their annual Empty Bowls Houston campaign. The ceramist has created 75 bowls so far for the campaign, with at least 25 more planned in order to fulfill the 100 bowl challenge — a goal that she has achieved for the past three years.

“I call it a win-win-win situation,” Fiscus says. “I win because I can share what I love with others, the people buying the bowls win by owning a beautiful handmade bowl and supporting those who are less fortunate, and the hungry win with full stomachs.”

Fiscus has donated handmade bowls for Empty Bowls since their first year—making this her tenth year. In celebration of their ten-year anniversary, Empty Bowls Houston has challenged Fiscus, as well as other area artists, with creating a more detailed collector bowl to be displayed in a month-long exhibit at the Archway Gallery, and then sold to benefit Empty Bowls and The Houston Food Bank.

Artists throughout the country are creating bowls for the Empty Bowls project, a grassroots effort by artists to feed the hungry in their communities. UH-Clear Lake Art Gallery Assistant Karen Fiscus, pictured at a potter’s wheel, hopes to create 100 bowls for the 10th Annual Empty Bowls Houston in May. (Photo: Jenny Howard/UHCL Communications)

On March 22, Fiscus will host the “Bowl-A-Thon” in the university’s Arbor Building North, giving UHCL students the chance to make a difference in the community through the Empty Bowls initiative by creating their own bowls to donate.

The bowls will then be displayed for purchase during the 10^th Annual Empty Bowls Houston on Saturday, May 17, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main Street, Houston, 77002.

“Each bowl has a little love thrown in,” says Fiscus.

For more information about the Bowl-A-Thon, or getting involved in the Empty Bowls project, contact Gallery Assistant Karen Fiscus by emailing Fiscus@uhcl.edu or calling 281-283-3311.