ABOUT
My first 'camera' as a child was my thumb and forefinger pulled together to create the 'okay' symbol, which in effect, created a rectangle in the curve of my forefinger. When something would catch my eye I would make my 'camera' to see what it would look like as a picture. Photographs,
while not as prolific as they are today, were popular in our family. Several times a year family night centered around sitting on my mother's bed going through boxes and albums of photos with mom telling stories of our family's ancestry.
I have been in love with photography for as long as I can remember. I suspect that even as a child I recognized the poignancy of capturing a fleeting moment which in all of existence, never was before and will never be again.
I grew up in New York City in the gritty grimy years of the 60s and 70s. I loved the city. I loved the pulse of the people and culture, I loved the grit and grunge - the el trains and subways, the graffiti, the street life, the alleyways. A view of a neighborhood street with people sitting on stoops quickens my pulse as much as the sight of the Rocky Mountains.
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I am inspired by music, shooting live concerts, deep emotions, mountains, the desert, snowstorms, cracks in the sidewalk, broken windows, graffiti, silhouetted trees, waves in the water, bodies in motion, the collective unconscious...
All of my art is centered around my own photography, and I like to keep my work as close to the original photograph as much as possible with some reaching and stretching as the piece requests. I include textures, brushes, and special techniques to transform each photograph or composite of photographs into a more expanded expression. Every piece I create is a part of me in some way: a feeling, a mood, a memory, an awareness, an internal experience, something long tucked away in an inside corner waiting for a crack in the darkness. Sometimes an image will pop into my head in its completion, other times a stirring deep in my viscera emerges and my job is to give it the images, colors, tones, textures and mood of it's urging.
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Karen has organized and led local photography groups, been the requested event photographer for weekend long musical festivals and fundraisers and been granted photography passes (no easy feat these days!) for such notable performers as The Steep Canyon Rangers, Allison Russell, Sean Hayes, Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Bush, Big Head Todd and Post Modern Jukebox.
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She can usually be seen camera in hand at local live shows capturing the musical community of her town.
Published in the February 2022 edition of Living The Photo Artistic Life International Magazine, Issue No. 84, on page 61, her artwork titled 'Celestial Harpist' garnered recognition.
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The artwork 'Sea to Sky' gained recognition and was featured in Issue No. 87 of Living The Photo Artistic Life International Magazine, published in May 2022, on page 95.
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Accomplishments