
Karen H. Salup
Karen’s work unfolds as she composes intuitive images whose references lean to nature. Her intuition developed a vocabulary that consists of idiosyncratic visual poetry through mark-marking. Heavily inspired by prior Abstract Expressionists, Karen follows in creating gestures that bring to the viewer; Form, Texture, Color, and Light.
Although abstract in nature, there is an underlying visual order that gradually emerges. She finds image secondary to process and describes this process as “entering a realm of the unknown” where there is more of a calling than any true direction. Continuously altering and adjusting the core of the painting results in an invisible reality suddenly becoming apparent.
It’s a self-imposed repetitive process guided by emotional intensity as she builds, erases, and paints the scene. A process that illuminates a definite chaos through the work’s shifting inner landscapes. Experience, sensation, and memory color the fluctuating world to ground and fortify an innate sense of place full of subtleties and sensitivities.