We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karen Azarnia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karen below.

Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

At a very young age I discovered and fell in love with world building – the idea that making art can be a world of my own imagining, a place to process personal feelings and experiences, to express emotion and locate wonderment.

I was incredibly fortunate to have two wonderful teachers as a high school student, Kathryn Brownell and Robert Moorhouse. Both were highly encouraging and helped pave the way for my undergraduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design. I have a background in traditional portraiture, figure drawing and figure painting, along with other traditional genres including landscape and still life. Later on, I pursued my MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which allowed me to teach.

I don’t know that I would necessarily want to change any part of the journey. I think painting is inherently a slow activity, in some ways much at odds with the fast-paced immediacy of our current culture and society. I embrace this slowing-down, and the cumulative time it took to acquire my skillset and understand the craft of painting, through practice and making over time.

In terms of developing a career, enthusiasm, patience, and a genuine love for the craft of painting are essential. Accepting the inherent ambiguity of a painting practice and a career in the arts, where there is no set career path, is also critical. The act of painting has taught me to accept and become comfortable with uncertainty, and it also provides a kind of meditative practice when working in the studio.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Through painting I explore notions of time, home, memory, and natural life cycles. Inspired by an archive of personal photographs and videos, the canvas surfaces are poured, wiped, scraped and layered. At once embracing and pushing against art historical tradition, the work operates in the play between abstraction and representation. My recent Verdant series is meant to be lush and generous – to inspire renewal, resilience, and pleasure. The parallel rhythms found in nature, the human experience, and the process of painting are for me at once meditative, wondrous, and grounding.

Originally from Miami, Florida I am a Chicago-based artist and educator. I received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. A 3Arts Foundation awardee and grant recipient from the Illinois Arts Council, I have exhibited nationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions. I currently teach in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding parts of being a creative is the way it fosters community. In my experience, art has helped me connect with other people, including fellow artists and viewers. I love working with my students, helping them find and cultivate their personal artistic voice. Curating exhibitions over the years has fostered life-long friendships through the process.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

As an artist, my hope is to make work people can connect to on a personal level – something they can relate to and feel through the basic human emotions that connect us all including love, longing, loss, intimacy, vulnerability and tenderness. I also champion culture, and advocate for the importance and relevance of the arts within our society, be it through arts education, museums, or local non-profits. Art and culture help to shape and define our humanity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.karenazarnia.com
• Instagram: @karenazarnia

Image Credits
Images courtesy of the artist.