Karen becker

During the last 45 years Becker has experimented with abstraction and realism using water soluble oils, pastels, transparent watercolor, acrylics, and mixed media mono-prints. 

My purely acrylic Geometric Paintings, of the mid 1980s, were my reaction to living in busy NYC. After moving to Vermont in 1983, nature became my muse and exquisite European pastels were my preferred medium. Switching to watercolors, I achieved portability and durable surfaces, unlike pastels which require special handling.  I began my mixed media mono-prints in the early 1990s. These mono prints incorporate careful drafting and pay tribute to birds and animals that are presently witness to the global climate crisis. My experiments with water-soluble oil paints on sheets of Japanese Yupo, led to purely abstract paintings that “compress time,” as observed by a visiting critic who I met at the Vermont Studio Center. 

                                                                                                                        

                                                                             - Karen Becker

Becker's journey from receiving a BFA in Graphics at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to Brattleboro, Vermont has been a varied evolution. It includes employment creating on-air graphics and photography for Public TV in NYC, being a typographer on Madison Avenue, working at Rolling Stone Magazine in San Francisco and assisting with decorative murals for Diana Ross in Greenwich, Conn. After moving to Vermont I joined the roster of the Vermont Arts Council as an Artist-in-Eduction working as a muralist in schools throughout New England. My art has been exhibited in galleries in NYC, San Francisco, Boston and throughout New England.

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