Karen was born in the North Sea coastal city of Hull which has a long history of fishing, a very tough life style. Karen first went to Paris, whilst at art college, and the contrast was enormous, especially when she saw the works of many of the great masters, such as Matisse, for real and not just in books. The revelation of the world of frivolous colour, scale and his cut out works opened up her imagination.
Since this discovery Karen has travelled the world absorbing the influences and documenting them is her notebooks. These notebooks are diaries and reflect the places and people encountered forming the basis of her collages. These collages combine found objects like adverts where the text gives an insight to the story composed. The collages are layered, often brightly coloured which gives a vibrancy to the image surface. The textures are also like layers of time, like pages from her visual diaries; 'memory banks', where the collage is made up of objects taken from her travels.
Farindola 3
Mixed Media on Paper
30 x 41 cm.
Farindola IV
Mixed Media on Paper
30 x 41 cm.
