Stories in Cloth with Karen

Karen is a narrative textile artist who weaves together the ancient world with an imagined future. She learned sewing techniques from her grandmother and mother and trained with renowned textile artists, including Master Weaver Ida Grae. Currently, she is a fellow of the American Craft Council, and her artworks are displayed in major museums across the country.

Karen’s main interest is to create a culturally inclusive textile vocabulary. Her textile practice includes everything from raising animals and processing their fleece to natural dyeing, weaving, embroidery, printmaking, felting, printing, and photo transfer. She merges handwoven textiles, digital prints, embroidery, and hand-dyed fabrics to tell the stories of African American lives and her ancestral heritage.

She is also a futurist. “I use my artwork to examine the past,” she says, “to find solutions to world problems and help guide a path for human survival.” She sees her home and the surrounding New Mexico landscape as one of the most inspiring places to produce art – a perfect setting to explore your own stories in cloth.