Karen is a native Texan born and raised in Dallas, now living in southern California. Her art
reflects her carefree attitude towards life. She has learned not to take this crazy world too seriously.
Karen was first interested in art when she was accepted into an honors art class at the age of 13.
She created her first ceramics when she was 13. Today her 3-dimensional
frames and wall sculptures are slab constructed from earthenware. When each piece is
dry, she paints low-fire underglazes to create all the bright colors, then fires the
earthenware to 1873 degrees. Some of her slab built stoneware clay bodies are Raku fired.
She uses tape and hot wax resist to create her designs before applying the Raku glazes.
She first started painting watercolors on a hillside overlooking Lake Geneva while attending the
American College of Switzerland in the summer of 1986. She was influenced by her instructor
Rob Erdle's bright, colorful, whimsical landscape paintings. She also loved Disney animation,
and
Dr. Seuss's wonderful characters this can be seen in the paintings from that summer in Europe.
While attending college in Switzerland in 1986, Rob Erdle took the group to paint in Monet's gardens in the South of France.
After this experience Karen was drawn to the Impressionist and Post Impressionist movements. She
enjoys the energy of the bright colors and large strokes of Monet and Van Gogh, therefore they have became her favorite artists
of the two movements.
Karen painted abstractly for a few years, then turned her
focus to her career in graphic design and computer animation.
In the late 80s and early 90s, her graphic design career influenced her painting style.
During September and October 1990 Karen was invited to show fourteen paintings at the
City Art Gallery in Dallas, TX. Some of the paintings were in oil and others were in acrylic.
In the nineties she came
full circle back to playing with water and color on paper and on silk.
From 1994 through 1997 she created a series of bright tropical paintings she began after
she and husband Horace eloped on the Island of Maui, Hawaii.
Karen took time off from painting, doing ceramics and fine art in general when she became pregnant with her daughter Katarina.
2005--- Karen is back in the studio and oil painting again.
Some of her latest works are paintings of musicians , portraits, still life and Tuscany.
A graduate of North Texas State University, Karen received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree
with a concentration in advertising in 1987. She also studied art in Geneve, Paris, Monaco,
Venice and Florence in the summer of 1986. She received a certificate in computer graphics from
the Apple Regional Multimedia Center in 1992. She became a member of the American Craft Council in 1994.
Art Exhibits
Hearth Gallery, San Marcos, CA, June- July 2008
Cole Library, Carlsbad, CA, February 5 - March 7 2008
Studio 2nd Street Holiday Show, Encinitas, CA, December 15, 2007 - January 25, 2008
Laguna Plein Air Painters ÒLess is MoreÓ Laugna Beach, CA November 17 - December 28 2007
Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, Newport Beach, CA Ð September 16 - October 18 2007
SOCALPAPA ÒPaints the PeninsulaÓ, Newport Beach, CA Ð September 9 - 16 2007
E-Street Cafe, Encinitas, CA - November- December 2006
Waters Edge, Gig Harbor, WA - July 1994 to 2002
Sumner Art, Sumner WA - July 1994 to 1998
Galerie 224, Laguna Beach, CA - June 1994 to 1997
Partners Art, Laguna Niguel, CA - June 1994 to 1996
Framing Warehouse, Carloton, TX - May 1992 1994
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX - May 1992
Florence Art Gallery, Dallas, TX - November 1990- March 1991
City Art Gallery, Dallas, TX - September-October 1990
City Art Gallery, Dallas, TX - Christmas Show 1990
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX - May 1990
Thrasher Gallery, Plano, TX - April 1989
500X Gallery, Dallas, TX - May 1989
Expressions, Dallas, TX - February 1987
