Karen is Digital Studio’s principal designer and collaborations liaison. Based in Portland, Maine, she is an artist in her own right, with a practice spanning multiple mediums. Focused on the ideas of resiliency and adaptation, Karen’s process begins with observational drawings, which she then expands and re-presents to emphasize the adaptable qualities between imagery and material.  

 

Where do you call home? 

South Portland, Maine.

 

How would you describe your creative practice?

My practice is grounded in simple nature drawings, typically using ink or pencil, and then I experiment, working systematically, to animate these and stretch their elasticity.

 

What are some of the recurring themes and explorations in your work?

I work across multiple mediums with a goal of modeling the resilience and adaptation found in nature and industry. Using handmade and industrial production techniques, I create systems of pattern and modularity that can be assembled and disassembled to create variation and mutation. 

 

What studio item can you not live without?

Ink and paper and also my computer.

 

How do you typically start your day? 

I start by checking on my garden, taking a peek at it from an upstairs window. If I have time, I'll take a walk around the garden and take note of changes and the things I want to tend to.

 

What is your earliest memory of making something?

Hammering colorful painted metal thumbtacks into a pattern on my bedroom window sill when I was four.

 

Who are your biggest influences?

I am very influenced by the ideals and teachings of the Bauhaus (ie. unifying all the arts) and my artist family. My parents are artists and designers, so I observed them sculpting, painting or drawing something at the kitchen table that would then be mass produced, and also making handcrafted items for the home. The idea of blending art, design, craft and manufacturing is something foundational for how I approach my creative life. 

 

What do you do when you encounter a creative block?

Typically I will switch mediums or draw my surroundings. This gives me a chance to reset and get "fresh eyes".

 

What are some small pleasures you have been folding into your life?

Walks with friends. Reading about plants and gardens. And, in the winter, hot chocolate.

 

How do you know when a piece of work is complete? 

When it comes to life. Sometimes that means it feels balanced and resolved, but animated in some way. Other times, it will feel surprising and strange, or it makes me laugh. Then I don't want to mess with it, and it's better to let it be itself. 

 

Tell us about the design(s) you've created for Designtex. 

They come from observational ink drawings of plants that have been cut up and reconfigured into patterning that can grow into a space. Originally they were photocopied and installed as large papier maché objects and panels that overlap and lean against each other. The idea was that the drawing itself would show its resiliency in how it could change scale, color, or be cut anywhere and combined with a similar version of itself with our eye tying it all together; it holds its character in a number of permutations. The Digital Studio platform where the pattern can be wallcovering or fabric, and a designer can alter the scale and color, is an extension of the original intent of the artwork.