Boston area artist Karen Krieger has been painting and experimenting with a variety of media and techniques for over twenty years. Karen found her niche with Chinese ink after first working with multidimensional collage and encaustic painting. These latter techniques helped hone her skills to create visual layers of depth through materials and texture. After Karen started to experiment with ink she realized that she had found the ideal medium to help further express the varied patterns and movement found in nature. Karen was drawn to ink's ability to flow naturally and to create depth with subtle layers of shaded ink.
Karen's artwork is informed by her empirical observations of the natural environment. Over the years she has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources including glaciers, the cosmos, mountains and water. The intellectual foundation to her aesthetic vision and intuitive approach to her process is influenced by her interest in the early literati tradition of Chinese landscape painting and its philosophical underpinnings.
Karen has found a way to merge traditional ink with a mix of her own custom made paints, pigments, and mixed media techniques. She works on rice paper (xuan) which she then mounts onto canvas which result in a dimensional texture to the finished surface of the work.
With a sense of quietude and introspection, each painting balances a semblance of traditional ink painting with a contemporary aesthetic. Through her art she invites the viewer to enter their own contemplative space of nature. She expresses this interior vision of a landscape with a nonrepresentational approach to her painting.
Karen brings to her art a background in philosophy, music, and graphic design. She received her B.A. in philosophy and music from Brandeis University (1987), Waltham, MA and later a certificate in graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art (1995), Boston. Karen’s visual training began as a graphic designer and art director before she focused exclusively on her painting. She works out of her studio at Gorse Mill Studios in Needham, MA. Karen's paintings are in private collections in the U.S. and Europe.