Karen Kilimnik

Artist #3 - Karen Kilimnik

When Susan Murrell first recommended Kilimnik to me, I was impressed at the start. Not by her particular style of painting but of her subjects and inspiration sources. She has said that she is heavily influenced by books, fairy tales, TV shows, etc. that she views herself as the playwright of a story and the portraits she paints are either characters in those stories with actors "casted" in those roles.

Karen Kilimnik. Snow White. Water soluble oil color  on canvas.  18" x  24". 2004.

Karen Kilimnik. Clara, the witch in the English countryside.  Water soluble oil color on canvas. 20" x 16". 2009.

When I first picked up a pencil to sketch random doodles in the corners of my notes in the fifth grade, my mind instantly went to one place: the Japanese anime Sailor Moon that had begun airing at the time. For the first few years of my expression of boredom, my characters of skewed and stylized proportions began to include other sources including Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Kathryn Janeway was a particular favorite of mine, and I have kept many drawings of her. My imagination thrives on fantasy and science fiction today as much as it did then, though it has matured. I have characters floating in my head that I created in high school, who I have been molding extensively ever since their inception. Many of these characters have found life on the page from time to time. Karen Kilimnik has rekindled my interest in creating work based on a fantasy world that was influenced so heavily by my favorite songs, actors, and characters.