Description
Winter Solstice by Karen J Waller
acrylic, 15 x 30 inches
Artist Statement: Celebrating highway architecture, I paint the remains of the days when Americans could afford to be whimsical in their plans, individual in their pursuits, and optimistic about their prospects. No matter what side of the highway we find ourselves on nowadays, we steadfastly share these bittersweet backdrops for all our kindred American lives lived, loved and lost.
Jersey Inspiration: This Tudor-style home studded with rainbow colored stones sits on the edge of Route 17 in Paramus, NJ. It houses a fabulous chocolate shop and I captured it early on the winter solstice as it lay in wait for Christmas.
Bio: Karen Waller received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978 from Montclair State College with a major in Fine Arts. After a hectic career in publication design and production as well as a stint as a muralist and decorative painter, she finally obtained her graduate degree in Studio Art from MSU studying with Peter Barnett and Amer Kobaslija. Recently retired from Bergen County Technical High School as an award winning Visual & Graphic Design instructor, Waller is rediscovering her love of typography and acrylic landscape painting with an occasional dash of vintage found object collage work.
Waller’s career highlights include working on Time magazine when it was banned in South Africa and People magazine, bold enough to put a human face on AIDS early on in that pandemic with a profile of young hemophiliac Ryan White. As a teacher, Waller guided her students through global communication projects with their counterparts in Japan, Ecuador, Tajikistan, and Thailand with one collaboration resulting in class-wide certification from the US State Department. Upperclassmen also earned a number of awards for public service announcements with videos regarding and written and directed by Waller. Waller herself was the recipient of a Governor’s Award in Arts Education in 2011 and an NEA Foundation Learning and Leadership grant in 2018. As for painting, the highlights include a large-scale, public mural donated to the Doo Wop Preservation League in Wildwood, NJ and her one-woman show at the Belmar Arts Center entitled Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
KarenWallerFineArtandDesign.com
$650 *
*Price is Subject to Sales Tax.
