Kara Young is an internationally recognized professional fiber.mixed media artist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Her work is seen as ancient but also contemporary fitting in many different environmental settings.

With a background in sculpture with a Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University, Young has worked as a fiber artist since the beginning of her art career starting with “freeform” sculptural weavings. She then moved on to clothing design and construction, and paper-making for ten years.

In 1986-87, Young completed a year and a half long apprenticeship with leo Hobaica, a well-known handmade paper and mixed media artist in San Francisco. Since that time, she has also been working in handmade paper and mixed media.

Above all things, her favorite studies in art come through Nature, watching how she orders herself and how she curves to the elements. This education is continuous, and never ending.

Fired copper is the signature of her work. This process literally arose out of the ashes of the Oakland fire of 1991, after her studio and home burned to the ground. While digging through the rubble, amid her tears and grief, she discovered beautiful burned rolls of copper that inspired a dramatic redirection to her artistry and artistic endeavors.

“I have no idea what my work would look like today if this fire had not happened. This is the miracle of creativity.”

With galleries and collections all over the world, Kara Young’s work can be seen here, at Mullaly’s in Elk Rapids.