We were lucky to catch up with Karen Elizabeth Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Karen Elizabeth, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I knew I wanted to pursue a creative path when I was working in my career in the women’s footwear arena of the fashion business. I was responsible for sales and business development and was very successful. One of the things that drew me to the industry was my interest in the creative aspect of the product. I was involved with better women’s shoes and every season was a delight when the new styles were presented. I loved the work, but as time went on, the business changed, and the work lost its connection to personal relationships and product. It became more dependent on the digital aspect of internet sales and subsequently I lost interest.

During this time I had a friend that was pregnant with her first baby. As a child, I never had a sock-monkey and I was jealous of the neighborhood kids that had one. So, I decided that my friend’s baby would have a sock-monkey. I made one for him, and before I sent it off I took a few photographs of it. When I sent the gift, I realized, I STILL did not have a sock-monkey. So I made another one for myself. It was very lively, so I took a few photographs of it and realized that I did not know how to take a proper photograph.

That was the start of my creative journey. I began studying art history and photography at UCLA extension courses while I was still working. When I retired from the fashion business I enrolled at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and got my BFA in Art and Art History with a focus on analog photography.

Currently I am working on a project called “Realm of Remembrance.”
Photographs are often perceived as objective records of reality, however our memories of the time that the photograph represents can depart from the visual object. Memories in time become altered, distorted and modified. This project uses the object, a photograph, to explore how one reinterprets memories, how we shape and revise our understanding of the past. To that end, my process in this project has become one where I am altering, distorting and modifying multiple images, creating a visual narrative seen through the haze of memory. I begin with my photographs taken using the documentarian tradition of lens-based capture and layer them with personal vernacular family photographs, text and appropriated images from popular culture. I utilized filters which upon close inspection render the images painterly, dreamlike, making one question the origin of the medium, the reality of the image.

The images demonstrate photography’s link to time, photographs that conflate memory to a moment outside of the temporal flow. The images have the ability to evoke memories, both personal and collective, particularly when the spectators have a relationship in some way with the depicted.

Karen Elizabeth, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My work is fine art photography which uses the medium of lens based capture to make images that explore aspects of the human condition and the evolution of our social constructs. Recurring themes in my work include studies of light, memory and time. Also repeated are the portrayal of spaces that seem devoid of human presence, creating tension due to the absence of their human inhabitants. These qualities render the work as art versus commercial photography which is imaging created on behalf of a client for business purposes.

I am honored to have been awarded first place, third place and honorable mentions from the New York Center for Photographic Art, the Los Angeles Center of Photography and Monochrome Black and White Photography Awards. My work is in the collection of the Waiea, Ward Village, Honolulu. I’ve been included in innumerable group shows and have had six solo shows in Los Angeles and Honolulu. I work in analog and digital formats and am adept in digital imaging. In my studio I produce all of my own prints including large format prints.

Currently I am exploring mixed media. I am also interested in complex installations creating wall-papers and 3 D spaces.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

This is a very difficult and complex question. Support for artists comes from civil understanding and agreement of the value to the quality of life and society as a whole of what they create. Culturally, that appreciation begins with education of young children. Communities need to communicate the worth, merit and importance of art. Supportive efforts by local communities to create spaces to show and create art are imperative. This is not an easy objective; art is very subjective, get two people to discuss it and you will probably get two people who disagree.

Every year when I do my taxes, my accountant scolds me for not making more money than I spend. He calls it a “hobby.” As a point of fact if your art business claims a net loss for too many years the IRS may classify it as a hobby, which would prevent you from claiming a loss related to the business or even claiming any expenses due to the suspension of miscellaneous itemized deductions. I think one way to support artists, particularly for those who have not yet achieved recognition would be to revise the tax code so they can continue to create their art without IRS penalties. I take my work very seriously and work at it every day but rarely make enough money to pay for all of the expenses I incur when creating the work. It’s difficult to move your art career forward if you are working a day job to support yourself. Quite a conundrum. Artists pay for all their expenses but until they get traction rarely get paid for their work in return.

When I tell people what I do, they frequently ask if I can do a project for them, but donʻt consider paying me for it. To have educated yourself in a craft and practiced it to perfection takes years and lots of funding. Most people do not understand what it takes and also, maybe why you do it.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the freedom to do what you want everyday. In my career in the fashion business, everyday someone told me what to do: my boss, my clients, my colleagues, my suppliers etc.

In my role as a fine art photographer I am the boss. I decide what project to create and what it will look like. There are no committees to create consensus, if someone doesn’t like it, that’s ok. I do get feedback from networking with other professionals in the art world and that is very helpful. But if I am certain of what I want to do, and someone questions it, I still get to do it. I am a very self-motivated and organized person, so the creative, administrative and IT work all get done without someone supervising me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://karenelizabethbakerphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karebaker200/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenbaker5/

Image Credits

Karen Elizabeth Baker
Rob Evanko