The Girl From Ipanema Print

Karen was born in San Jose, Costa Rica. At the age of six, her family immigrated to Miami, Florida where they established their roots for generations to come. Her family was heavily invested in the artistic scope of the world. Her love for the arts started at a young age where she watched her father drawing as a hobby. She as well as her two brothers took artistic expression through drawing and painting. Karen always volunteered for artistic projects at school and by the age of twelve was recognized as a gifted artist by Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and How Magazine; her pieces were published by both organizations. This achievement got her a placement in a Magnet School for gifted artists in Middle School. She was further awarded with acceptance into the number five high school in the country at the time, Design and Architecture Senior High (D.A.S.H.) for gifted artists in Miami. ​Since graduating from D.A.S.H., Karen has supported herself solely on her love of art. She began painting children's theme rooms and murals for a living in 2000. Throughout the 2000s Karen took several faux finishing classes to advance her abilities which resulted in her working for one of the top faux finishing companies in Las Vegas. Within a year of working for the company, Karen had been promoted to trainer and field supervisor. In 2007, Karen established and currently maintains a successful custom wall finishing company despite taking on fewer projects. This is due to her shifting her focus on expressing art on canvas and acrylic sheets. Karen has continued painting and creating art pieces through the years and has decided to work solely on classic art pieces on canvas, acrylic sheets, and furniture. Using metallic paints mixed with texture and movement created with plasters, Karen loves to explore feelings and emotions, and she doesn't shy away from political opinions and emotions of the day. She tends to see things from a different perspective. Her style displays her insights using a mixture of classic art combined with murals, and faux artisan techniques. Karen different styles are abstract, modern, contemporary and expressionism. ​StrataLife People are complex and life is complicated, filled with peaks and valleys. People accumulate vast layers of experiences of which others observe only a glimpse. My art, which I call StrataLife, is a representation of those complex layers in colors and textures.