Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Weber.
Hi Karen, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As is often the case with future artists, I was always making things as a child. I grew up in the deep woods near St. Peters Village in Chester County, PA, and spent much of my time wandering, playing, creating and imagining within them. The woods are brimming with materials for an interested child, so I did a lot of building with sticks, molding with the iron rich clay and stacking the abundant rocks near the Rock Run Creek that flowed behind my house. As such, when I thought of what I wanted to do when I got out of high school, I decided to go to art school for sculpture with an emphasis in clay. I ended up getting my BFA through Beaver College (now Arcadia) in Glenside, studying under Paula Winokur, a locally well know sculptress who created large scale sculptures with her personally recipe of porcelain sculptural clay body. I worked for several years at local studios as a studio tech and as assistants to several Chester County clay artists while simultaneously building a small studio and wood fired kiln on the property I grew up on.
My life took a drastic turn after I met the man I was to marry. In addition to working with clay, I also was active in the local music scene (this was in the mid 1990’s) and was in several bands. It was in one of these that I met my future husband – he the bassist, me the singer and guitarist. We met and fell in love rather quickly and soon started a family. As a woman in the 90’s, and as an artist, it made sense for me to be the homemaker while he continued working to support us. So, art and music took a back seat while we both found our way as new parents with new responsibilities. We were fortunate to be able to purchase a small house shortly after my daughter was born, in Birdsboro, a small town in Berks County. To keep myself sane, I would take my daughter to the small library in town for story time and to connect with people. It was only about a year later that a position opened up in the library to work the front desk. I jumped at the chance and got the job as it worked well with my husband’s schedule. It turned out to be a fun job and one that quickly evolved into me taking on the role of the Children’s Librarian where I planned the story times, played my guitar and read to children, and coordinated arts and crafts for the library. I frankly loved my job, and became enamored with children’s literature and the artwork that went along with it, as it was sometimes more important than the words, and always a joy to look at. But, if you know anything about our public library system, you will know that funding for them is always in question. It seemed year after year we were always under threat of closing our doors because the funding was getting less and less. And my little family had grown at this point so that I now had an infant son as well. With the uncertainty of my library job, and my love of creating fun and educational experiences for children, I decided to go back to school to get my teaching certificate and after 2 years, I was in the local school districts subbing for art classes and trying to get a permanent position as an art teacher.
But there was another side to what happened when I went back to college. During my time at Kutztown University, where I got my teaching certification, I also had some amazing teachers who introduced me to the wonders of pigment and paint. My love for creating things, particularly visual art, was reignited and I purchased a set of oil paints and a few brushes at the college bookstore… and, well, it almost seems like, the rest is history.. I would come home from the school I subbed in that day and after my kids were in bed, I would sit at my kitchen table and paint. This was around 2009 or 10 and I was just getting acclimated to the internet.. and I found artists who were sharing their techniques, materials, ideas and processes in their blogs.. yes, it was all about blogs at that point. I found Leslie Saeta who hosted a weekly podcast called Artists Helping Artists that she co-founded with another artist named Dreama Tolle Perry and together, they were my mentors who helped me to see myself as an artist and not just a dabbler. Leslie was a former marketing guru and she shared all the secrets and tips of how to be more confident when marketing yourself.. and she would host an annual 30 in 30 where people from around the globe signed up to paint a painting a day for 30 days while encouraging each other and yes! selling the work we created! It was painting a painting every day for 30 days, many times over, that honed my skills as a painter and more broadly, as a working artist. In the course of 3-4 years, I had painted hundreds of paintings, and began to form the ideas that make up my work today. It was during this time that I signed up for an account on a website called Daily Paintworks, a wonderful site run by the artist Carol Marine and her tech savvy husband. When I started posting my work, I found that it was actually selling, giving me the confidence to continue! And what can i say? I was hooked.
Although my artwork was selling, it was far from paying all the bills. So I continued to sub and look for a permanent position in a school. But, I also was finding out that, while I loved being a Children’s Librarian, I did not love teaching in school districts. I won’t go into the whys but will just say, over time, I discovered that teaching in schools was definitely not for me. So, I spent more and more time pursuing painting, and less and less time working in the schools until I finally quit subbing and got a part time job as a cook in a local bar to help with the bills instead. You do what you have to do, I find, to continue to to what you love to do.. I continued to paint as much as I could and soon joined a local artist cooperative, Art Plus Gallery, in 2013, and have been with them ever since. And what a time it has been!
During my time as a member of this cooperative, I have served as the Director for 4 years from 2015-19, on the board as a member at large for 6, co-founded one of the largest Plein Air events in this area, Plein Air West Reading, helped to bring the gallery into the 21st century by planning and helping with major interior renovations, developed our student scholarship program, student internship program, helped to develop the gallery’s website and much more. I’ve served on nearly every committee in the gallery and consider it to be a 2nd home. I currently serve as the gallery’s grant writer, website developer, and help with marketing and vision work. And oh, yes, I continue to paint.
During all of this amazing professional growth I also have worked hard on developing my personal style and vision for my artwork. My main body of work centers on joyful and whimsical art that I specifically design to make people smile. I do this by choosing imagery that is appealing to me, and putting together subjects that often don’t naturally go together to create an entirely new narrative. This direction started simply enough by putting a bird on a dog’s head. That painting started it all. As I continued to explore this direction with my paintings, I started hearing more and more people say, “Your work just makes me smile”, or “It just makes me happy”. And, I realized that making people smile and bringing joy to the world was a wonderful thing to do, even if it was only for a moment, or if it happened to be every time that person looked at a painting of mine that they purchased. I decided that, for me, there wasn’t really anything better to do in this world than create artwork that makes people happy, and so have been pursuing joyful art ever since. I now have painted hundreds if not thousands of joyful paintings, continue to participate in the annual 30 in 30 art challenge that I started with Art Plus Gallery’s membership, have developed a robust reproduction side of my business and also paint custom commissions for people wanting to commemorate their pets. Most of my paintings include animals, some favorites being birds, cows, dogs, frogs, foxes.. so many animals, too many to mention.. and I pair them with items of nostalgia or simply things that bring me joy, I’ll put them in whimsical interiors, float them in the sky suspended by colorful balloons, perch them in teacups, playing with scale and subject matter… I am now represented by galleries and venues throughout the South Eastern PA area including Art Plus, Square Pear in Kennett Square, Exhibit B in Souderton, Visual Expansion in West Chester, The Collective in Pottstown, The Reading Museum Gift Shop and Muse Artisan Boutique in Glenmoore. My latest adventure is the task of working on expanding my reproduction business to include a wholesale side so I can spread the love of my whimsical, joyful paintings to a broader audience. I plan to have that portion of my website up and running by early 2027.
And to come around full circle, I believe my current artwork is a direct result of the joy I felt as a child, wandering the woods of Chester County and marveling at the natural world, and of the time I spent as a children’s librarian, and reading to my own children. The exposure to the artwork in children’s literature is imprinted on my brain and my psyche and, no question, influences my whimsical outlook today.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think I touched on some of the struggles, but, here:
Raising a family, being a mom… much of one’s creativity and energy naturally flows here, so finding my way to paint after a long day preparing meals, doing laundry, wiping tears, plus working at a traditional job… it was initially a struggle. but…
I am lucky that I have always had the support of my parents and now my family. They have all always encouraged me to follow my heart and do what I love. This practically negates any struggle I may encounter, knowing that my loved ones believe in me.
And…
Joining a cooperative gallery is a wonderful way to find support in the artistic community. If you have a cooperative gallery near you, definitely get involved! Having a group of other artists is a great place to find answers to what ever you may be struggling with!
Furthermore…
I consider myself fortunate to have a naturally curious nature.. So if I come upon a hurdle, my mind is instantly looking for ways to get over it. There is always a way. You just have to be open to the possibilities and sometimes unexpected solutions.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My artwork is known for it’s joy and whimsy, and the fact that it makes people smile. I am proud of the fact that I persisted in pursuing this direction, even in the face of those artists and organizations that occasionally don’t value joyful art. As an aside, yes, I have come across people who don’t think my artwork has merit.. or who believe that the lightness of my artwork equals frivolity, perhaps? But, while I have experienced scorn from a few artists (very few), the joy it brings me to share joy with others outweighs any negativity that may have come my way over the years. Like I said, there hasn’t been much of this, but, creating joyful art is not necessarily considered a serious pursuit. So, I am proud that I have pushed through that nonsense and decided to create it anyway. One of my latest paintings is titled “Love Anyway”. What I meant by that when I titled it was, in spite of the terribleness and darkness this world offers up, in spite of the uncertain future we may all face, in spite of all of that, Love Anyway. And broadly speaking, I will continue to create joyful artwork anyway.
I have heard other artists struggling with this similar question recently.. How can I continue to create art when I am surrounded by tumult? And I see that many of these artists are finding the answers by pushing through and continuing to create.. They create as protest, or as a way to balance the scales, or as a way to bring peace to themselves or others, or as a way to work through their feelings, or as a way to share beauty… Whatever the case, I believe that if you are an artist, you must create art. Painters paint. Artists art. 🙂 Ok, so that really doesn’t answer the specific question you asked. but it speaks to the heart of who I am. What sets me apart from others? I would like to think it is my commitment to this idea, the idea that it is important to make joyful art, just as it is important to make political art, or figurative art, or abstract art or landscapes, or still lifes or… The filter that is me, this vessel that creates paintings, filters joy. I don’t know how else to say it.
What matters most to you?
Joy, beauty, truth. I think I was born this way. It is the way.
Pricing:
- Prints and Cards – $6.50 – $60
- Original Paintings $225 – $2500
Contact Info:
- Website: https://karenweberfineart.com
- Instagram: @karenweber.fineart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenWeberFineArt
- Other: https://www.dailypaintworks.com/Artists/karen-weber-4687
