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Karen Baldner |
Karen Baldner grew up in West Germany in a Jewish family who survived persecution by Nazi Germany. The haunted climate of Germany after the Holocaust became a pivotal experience and narrative for her work. Other influences are: her publisher family, the literary/musical world she grew up with and the experience of the written word as both powerful and slippery; the work and life of Joseph Beuys; the pioneering work of book artist Keith Smith; the sculptor/papermaker Winnifred Lutz; the shifts in thinking during the 1960's. Although Germany remains a personal and professional destination, living in the US has become an important emotional buffer. Karen moved to the US to complete her formal studies with a Masters Degree in Printmaking and she still lives and works in the Midwest of the US. She teaches Book Arts and Drawing at Herron School of Art & Design at Indiana University in Indianapolis . Karens work has been supported by Fulbright and NEA Grants as well as state grants from Arkansas and Indiana. She shows extensively throughout the US and Europe and her work is in a number of public and private collections in the US, Canada and Germany.