- Artist’s Statement: In this time of increasing reliance on AI to generate creativity and skill, and in this time of upgraded attack on our fragile ecosystems, I am compelled to personally document the inner experience I have while I view my natural subjects, and to share them here. I also commit to raise awareness of the third culture identity by allowing myself to express my ideas and feelings through whatever lens I am currently viewing the world: I stand my ground as an artist needing multiple styles to satisfactorily express myself, and reject the commercial drive to develop an easily identifiable personal style when life has been so varied.
Biography:
Kirsten Karahan is inspired by and grateful to her maternal grandmother’s love of nature and the time she took to pass her interests and knowledge to her as a child. Her grandmother fed Kirsten with stories of mountain lions and eagles and friendly crows and clingy donkeys and unfortunately tasty deer from her upbringing on a California ranch; and regaled her with tales of of a beloved twin brother who made nature documentaries for the Audubon Society. This Grandmother took a very young Kirsten out on bone collecting sorties (young Kirsten wanted to be a paleontologist), and taught her how to avoid the rattlers during this process. As a child, Kirsten was almost permanently in a state of culture shock from constant moving, and these times with her grandmother were very grounding.
Kirsten Karahan is a Third Culture adult, which means she’s been traveling in one way or another all her life, but has recently resettled in the US. She says: If left in one place too long, I travel inside.
By the age of 18 Kirsten had lived in Austria, Taiwan, Burma (Myanmar), China, Belgium, and the US. As a child, she scavenged for animal clues at the bases of Myanmar jungle trees, in the open fields of California ranches, atop Taiwanese mountains with their steaming sulphur springs, and the in the shade of the gentle Forest of Swans in Brussels, Belgium. You might catch a glimpse of some of those places or cultures from time to time in her work styles.
My style is equally as varied as the history of my homes. If it were stable and consistent it would be untrue to myself, and to all the worlds that have made me who I am.
When she was 13 and 14 years old, Kirsten worked/painted for two hours a day, every day, under the tutelage of traditional Chinese landscape artist Jo Wang Hess, in Shanghai, China. She was a ruthless task master, and if Kirsten missed a day, it would be 4 hours of painting the next day. Much of her work revolved around animals and insects. Jo spoke through them in political and social allegory and with the not so infrequent pun. Kirsten credits Jo with her tendency to make the occasional statement through animals as well.
As an adult, Kirsten Karahan lived in Ankara, Turkey, for 23 years.
Kirsten moved to the Pacific Northwest coast of the US a few years ago, with her husband and son, where she is deeply inspired by the deep forests and moody seas and skies. She currently works in acrylics, but also enjoys ink, oil pastels, gouache and water colors.
Professional:
Kirsten Karahan holds certificates in teaching IB/DP Category 1 Visual Art and in IGCSE Art and Design 0400. She has a BA in Asian Studies from Tufts University that integrated Art History as an essential component of the degree, and studied Art and/or Art History in Bruxelles, Florence, and Boston (MFA affiliated, through Tufts). She has a combined 33 years of full time teaching experience as an elementary class teacher in a few international schools, and as a K-10 Visual Art teacher and Head of Department at Bilkent Laboratory and International School. Kirsten exhibited at the 2018 Art Teachers’ Exhibition in Istanbul, sponsored by PonArt, and at the International Women’s Art and Crafts Fair in Istanbul, 2006. In 2011 she attended the International Society for Education in the Arts conference in Roveniemmi, Finland; in 2012 she illustrated Linda Jaworski’s book: Svensson Nore Junior. Her elementary art projects with 4th and 5th graders have found permanent homes in a popular Turkish shopping mall, the Gordion Shopping Mall, in Ankara. Currently Kirsten shows her work in a variety of local exhibits and her work can be found in Millstream on Bainbridge Island.
Kirsten’s writing has appeared in what was once the Bremerton Sun, as the entire concluding chapter of “How to Live and Work in Turkey” by Huw Francis, and in a poetry anthology published by Bainbridge Island Press.
Pricing: in general, acrylic paintings on wood panel board usually go for between $2.00-$2.75 per square inch. Very large paintings tend to be priced at a lower fee per square inch, unless highly the project was very time consuming or especially detailed. This price will include the cost of materials, but not the price of shipping and handling.
Please use the contact tab on the main page for queries about Kirsten’s work, commissions and sales.
