Artist Statement

Thanks to science, we can see, what according to nature’s design, is invisible to us.  There in the microscopic realm, just beneath the surface, it is possible to observe a myriad of intricate forms and systems, interconnected in a sort of glorious dance.  We can watch as cells and organisms reach out, touch, separate, cluster, and spread. For me, this small-scale world represents that which is omnipresent, yet overlooked.  The feeling that civilization is bearing down and damaging the balance of nature’s elaborate systems, fuels my continued interest in organic forms and their relationships.  

My work consists of drawings, collages and relief sculptures.  These approaches blend precise drawing or cutting with random changes to papers produced by drips, contact with rust, or immersion in liquid.   The small drawings are delicate and meticulously rendered, and call for close examination by the viewer.  The collages and reliefs involve the creation and arrangement of shapes in response to my study of all sorts of microscopic and botanical forms. These works are larger, abstract, and more playful than the drawings.  I integrate numerous materials into the collages and reliefs, including string, colored mesh, aluminum screen, wood, and plexiglass.  The shallow relief of my sculptures suggests the multiple layers that exist beneath the surface.  Scale and choice of materials in the sculptures fluctuates, and is the part of my practice which is undergoing the most change. 

Karen Steen Biography

Karen Steen started her professional art career as an editorial illustrator.  She made scores of tiny paintings, published in magazines and books, that provided visual information about scientific subjects related to health, well-being and medicine.  In response to the constraints of commercial illustration, Karen entered into a phase of exploration during which she studied various printmaking techniques, and unconventional uses of materials. The quest to refine her personal expression, led her to pursue an MFA degree, which she completed in 2007 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She also has Bachelors degrees in Illustration, earned in 1988 at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and in Business, earned in 1978 at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Karen relishes the challenge of combining the technical and conceptual skills she developed as an illustrator with the intuitive approach of a fine artist.  

Artistic influences include Lee Bountecou, for her singular vision and masterful use of materials, Elizabeth Murray for blurring the line between picture and object, and for making work that is both serious and playful, and Aurora Robson, for her inventive hanging sculptures, inspired by organic forms and made from cast-off plastic bottles.  

Steen has won numerous awards and has exhibited in Southern California, Philadelphia, New York City, and various locations in the mid-Atlantic region.  Recently, she was an award winner in the prestigious exhibition, Art of the State: Pennsylvania 2010, at the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, and won the Betsy Meyer Memorial Award for Experimental Art in 2009.

Karen is a southern California native. She moved with her husband and three daughters to the east coast 5 years ago.  She now lives in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, and loves working in her studio at the Banana Factory.

Karen completed training to be a hospital artist in residence at The Creative Center, in New York City.   She is now working at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem and Allentown.  She assists cancer patients and their families with  creative projects to encourage healing and well-being.  Karen is also a drawing instructor at Penn State Lehigh Valley.