Karen Theisen
Santa Fe, NM
Swirl I
Red Jasper rocks from Dale Ball in Santa Fe, wire, epoxy
21” x 21” x 4”
2022
$2400
About
Karen has a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Crafts and an MFA from California College of the Arts in sculpture. Karen has worked as digital product designer in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years and has designed products for companies such as Uber, Oracle, and Wells Fargo. She holds several patents.
While in California, she enjoyed traveling and hiking throughout the beautiful scenery along the coast and in the Sierra Nevada. Now residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she is an awe of the amazing light and natural beauty in the Land of Enchantment. The skies, vegetation and wildlife are an endless source of inspiration.
Her art is a combination of both of these seemingly opposite worlds that she has inhabited - nature and technology. Her art has been described as a cross between Bridget Riley and Andy Goldsworthy. Karen’s work is held in private, public and corporate collections throughout the US.
Artist Statement
My work is a tribute to nature and its endless variety that is directly threatened by climate change.
The river rocks that are the primary material in my sculptures are used in dry landscaping throughout the desert climate where I live. They provide beauty, texture, and ground cover in a place that has very little water and are a potent symbol of climate change. In addition, I strive to use sustainable materials like these since they have less environmental impact.
I have worked as a digital product designer in hi-tech for many years. I fashion my sculpture as digital models in physical form - each rock is a point defining a 3D skin.
My sculptures are a sort of biomorphic minimalism - the slick seduction of technology seen in the perfection of 3D grids and saturated colors juxtaposed with the organic patterns in nature create tension and surprise the viewer.
The work speaks to what will endure, the rocks that are eternal and indestructible, while simultaneously asking how we will protect our most valuable resource, our natural world.
Art from Karen Theisen in other TAAC exhibitions
This is Karen Theisen's first TAAC exhibition