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Statement
"Broken imagery, a high-key palette, and lines swiped across paintings and prints symbolize the effects of climate change that erode the landscape, warm our waters and cause catastrophic weather events. The unrealistic colors in my work appear as a new form of apocalyptic beauty but foreshadow an ominous future."
Karen Olsen-Dunn has a formal education in psychology, painting/drawing, and digital media with post graduate course work in printmaking. She received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2007 and BA in Psychology from San Francisco State 1988. She has shown her work in numerous exhibitions and art fairs locally and nationally. Five of her works were purchased for the Sutter Pacific Hospital collection in San Francisco, her painting “Mendo Fences” is currently on view at the deYoung Museum Open 2023 and her Work “Erosion 5 was selected for the cover and publicity collateral for San Francisco Artspan 2023 Open Studios. Her professional career in the software industry developing instructional media products has influenced her process and works to her advantage in developing her layered works. She is able to refine her paintings, prints, and installations, by adding intricate patterns of organic and inorganic forms. Layers of acrylic paint collaged with archival photographic transfers are integrated directly on birch panels building up multiple layers to create the final work that leaves the viewer wondering what is painted and what is digital.
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