​KAREN NIELSEN
​Multidisciplinary  Artist

About: Whether it is music, or poetry, or visual art, I inhabit the worlds I am creating. I have always had a vivid imagination and my father told me that I feel things more strongly than most people. Perhaps it is this combination that allows me to construct and live in these other realms. Much of my visual art begins from a song I wrote, or a poem, which are usually born out of an experience or something to which I have born witness. Sometimes I merely see or hear or remember something: a lost toy, a friendly squirrel, a homeless transgender youth, a striking painting, a conversation on the subway, my mother's failing mind. Whatever the motivation or the inspiration, when I build these worlds, while I am building these complex and layered worlds, I live in them and they are the safest and happiest places I have ever known, even if they are sometimes a little frightening. There is also beauty in darkness. In this digital age it is easy to perfect everything (voice, visual, words). But life is messy, clumsy, so I reflect this in my work. A rough edge, a note off-key, a clunky word. Take your time. Look and listen closely. Pay attention, not all is as it first seems. Thank you for being here.