KARIN TAYLOR is a wildlife artist based on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia. In her studio in Gibsons, Karin hand sculpts her (yoga) bear statues. Wildlife has always been her preferred subject matter, in Indonesia she was the house artist for the Jakarta Zoo – a very hands-on experience.Karin has always preferred unusual materials and canvases to work with, whilst in Calgary her canvas varied from huge boulders to wild turkey feathers. Her feather art was part of the Western Art Show of the Calgary Stampede for over 15 years and has also been featured on tv specials for HGTV and Chinese/Canadian TV.Currently Karin hand-sculpts wildlife (including her yoga bears) out of wood cellulose..Her work can be found in galleries across Canada.Artist statement: "For over 10 years now my yoga bears have enabled me to use my passion for art, wildlife and especially bears all in one: by using their comical characteristics I hope to create more empathy and undo some of the negative emotions bears seem to evoke in people.. they are more than willing to coexist with us and we need to embrace that..I have been a wildlife artist for over 30 years now and bears continue to be one of my favorite subjects to work with. After moving from the foothills in Alberta to Vancouver and since 4 years the Sunshine Coast, I took up yoga and this ended up being the trigger to me creating bear yoga statues and also finally becoming a full time 3D artist.To witness people’s responses to my bear statues and see their subsequent smiles , is key too my continued joy to create more and different bears!How I make them:My bears are are all individually hand sculpted from wood cellulose (imported from Europe) air dried and coated in enamel once dry, no chemicals are used:only water to mix the cellulose powder)This year I have also started a ‘coastal’ version of the yoga bears: instead of a bronze enamel the coastal bears are covered in sand..Apart from my armature the bears are basically turned back in to solid wood. Therefore they should not be shown outdoors permanently!