ABOUT KAREN

A life-long Artist, Karen graduated with distinction from Purdue University, having earned a BA in Fine Arts and Art Education. While at Purdue, Karen was named "Outstanding Senior in Art Education" and was awarded the prestigious and coveted "Ralph Beelke Memorial Award for Excellence in Fine Arts and Art Education." Karen was a dedicated Jr Sr High School Visual Arts Teacher at the North White School System in Indiana where she taught for 17 years. Karen provided strong standards based art programs to grades 7-12, teaching Art History, Intro to 2-D and 3-D Art, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, and Advanced 2-D and 3-D. She also served as the art department chair and exhibited student artwork within the school, in the community, and regionally.

Long before Karen was a Visual Arts teacher she was a self-taught ceramicist and woodcarver. During that time, Karen raised her four children, helped her husband farm, further his education and career, and endeavored to create her own artwork. She was able to sell her ceramics at a shop in Lafayette, IN and compete as a woodcarver in local venues and won several major awards. After winning monetary awards and commissions for her work she was no longer allowed to enter any competition as an amateur. It was at that point that Karen felt she needed further arts education in order to compete with the art majors. While in college she became very interested in Art Education and pursued a double major in both Fine Arts and Art Education. While at Purdue, Karen won several awards for her artwork and academics, as well as having her artwork chosen to be published in a Purdue publication.

Although Karen loved teaching Jr Sr High School Art, she developed a voice disorder that made teaching very difficult and decided to retire to pursue her own art once again. She is now avidly exploring and creating her own work. Even though she is an accomplished artist in various media, including ceramics, woodcarving, sculpture, drawing, painting and printmaking, Karen especially loves working in 3-D. Although she enjoys woodcarving she finds the medium somewhat limiting. She has been experimenting with other various mediums to create sculptures inspired by nature. She has dubbed her new series 3-D Multi-Media Creations because she found that she could utilize recycled paper, wire, cardboard, styrofoam, aluminum, special formula paper clay and a variety of other non conventional materials and techniques to create her sculptures. She is constantly exploring new ways to use a variety of media to capture the beauty, essence and spirit of each subject she endeavors to create. If you would like to view her work in person, Karen has had the privilege to return to Carroll County where she happily lived for a few years when she was first married to join a talented.group of artists at the Chapel Gallery in Delphi. She can also be found on Facebook and Instagram.