- Artist’s Statement: I strive to honor the already perfect state of my natural subjects by expressing them through the lens of my personal feelings and aesthetic experiences. I do this with the intent that what I put out into this world will uplift the viewer and provoke some thought, encourage curiosity, and at least sometimes bring joy.
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 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.
During the tender years around age 13, 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 Bainbridge Island exhibits and fairs, and her work very much reflects the local flora, fauna, and waterways.
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.
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