It may seem odd to those who live in 2023 for someone to be quoting scripture. Eyebrows may go up. What do we have here. A religious nut?!
And yet religious scenes were often the subject of the Old Masters, and those who came after them. But times change, and art changes as consciousness develops. And yet when something is true it is eternal. The fashion may change, but the soul work of giving truthful expression to itself is eternal.
This is my artistic mission. It is to express what it means to me to be human. Art is the expression of this eternal reality.
There is nothing better than to have a passion and to rejoice in the expression of this in one’s lifetime. I came to this passion late. I started to study fine art at university, but I was immature. I needed to develop. I can say this now in hindsight. At the time I knew (with a certain self-knowledge) that I did not want to turn out art that didn’t express my soul. I didn’t want to copy others. But I did not know who I was, or what my original expression could be.
So I completed my university degree majoring in English and History of Art.
I worked in the corporate world. I spent time living in intentional community. I wandered. I was lost. And then I did a eurythmy training which is an art form expressing poetry and music through movement.
And with this my life changed direction. My artistic soul (and I have a poetic as well as a musical nature) began to stir, but it was still not time to paint.
After my 5-year eurythmy training I formulated a personal development course called, “The Art of Being”, which created a canvas for understanding the soul and spirit. Simultaneously I worked with ‘process-oriented art.’ It was wonderful. I loved it. I did it for 23 years and then Covid arrived.
I stopped my individual therapeutic and group work, and I took up my paint brush.
My season to paint had arrived.
As we are human we fall in love. When one falls in love, one is enraptured, exhilarated, challenged, and committed to whatever arises in the journey of love. My soul was (is) in love with painting, and it wants to express all the colour, the spirit, the emotion, the form of life. My soul wants to paint. And when I fall into doubt, I am indebted to a friend who has a keenly aesthetic eye who says: “Paint Karen. Keep on painting. Your art is very evocative.”
And so, here is my art. I think it speaks a powerful language. I have been told that it is unique, and I think it is. Here is my expression of what it means to be alive and human. I understand that my soul and the world are not separate. My art expresses 3 decades of spiritual and psychological/soul work with people.
I hope my soul speaks to yours in my work! For art is a conversation of light and dark, of truth and beauty. It awakens and enlivens. Above all it heightens the experience and feeling of being human.
Here is my offering of love.