| After years of working in the conventional world at a "real" job, artist Karen Anderson finally made the leap to pursue her dream of creating art on a full time basis. She can now be found, dog and cat trailing behind her, making "her stuff", which takes many forms including wall art, tables, clocks, mirrors and more. Each piece is unique. She loves to use bold colors and emotion-evoking text to advocate "living the life you love". The inspiration for her art comes from many people and places, especially her beloved north woods of Minnesota and Lake Superior. After sketching a design idea, Karen heads out to her garage-studio, where her power tools reside. She cuts and sands the piece (or pieces) she'll need from aspen wood. She uses aspen because of it's clarity (relatively free of knots and uneven grain). She also uses diamond willow for rustic legs on boxes or small tables. Then it's back to her indoor studio to work on the next steps of the process, making a quick pencil drawing onto the wood and then using a wood-burner to etch the design permanently into the piece. Next, she uses acrylic paints to color the designs, mixing to create unique colors, and then finishes each piece with an acrylic sealer. The whole process, start to finish is done by one person--Karen! |
