Karen Wilcox

 

Statement of Mentoring Philosophy

I will provide the knowledge, compassion, and determination to help my protégée set and achieve her goals toward success in her creative endeavor.

I have worked with women artists and students as a teaching assistant for Elizabeth Erickson and Patricia Olson in the Women’s Art Institute, conducted adult classes at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, and have provided artist critiques and public presentations of my work. I have participated in over 60 group and solo exhibitions since 1994. I have a working knowledge of the business of art: promotion, marketing, presentation, documentation, record keeping, and executing commissions. I work in a variety of media and creative techniques in painting, drawing, and sculpture.

I am looking for a protégée who is:
•    A good communicator
•    Dedicated to her creative process
•    Willing to take risks and develop technical skills
•    Willing to develop critical thinking skills on formal and conceptual aspects of art

Although women artists have made great strides in the art world, we have a lot of hard work to do in order to achieve the recognition we deserve. As a mentor, I intend to work closely with my protégée to develop her concept of herself, her work, and her place in the community.

Biography

Karen Wilcox has exhibited her work in over sixty exhibits since 1994 across the United States, including Agora Gallery, New York and Limner Gallery, Chelsea and Hudson, NY. Her most recent solo exhibit was at Conduit Gallery, Minneapolis.

Ms. Wilcox’s work has been featured in several print and online publications, including ArtisSpectrum Magazine and Direct Art Magazine as a recipient of the “Second All Media Open Competition for Publication”, as well as Pulse of the Twin Cities and “Five Minutes of Fame”, mnartists.org. Mary Abbe, art critic for the Minneapolis Star Tribune said in her commentary on Ms. Wilcox’s solo show “Caught Between Dreams and Awakening” at Rogue buddha Gallery: “With their multiple heads and tangled bodies, her biomorphic creatures ooze subterranean impulses.”

Ms. Wilcox has provided numerous artist talks at galleries and art centers. She was invited to serve as presenter and guest panelist at the Women’s Art Institute Lecture Series entitled “Musing the Wit: The Power and Possibility of Making from Soul” in 2004 at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Ms. Wilcox creates oil, acrylic, and mixed media painting and sculpture, as well as commissioned work for private collections.  She has worked as a teaching assistant at the Women’s Art Institute at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, taught various classes at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, and mentored emerging artists through the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota. Wilcox received her B.F.A. at Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2001 and currently maintains a studio in Minneapolis, MN.

Artist Statement

Hybrid creatures that first materialized in my oil paintings more than ten years ago now serve as protagonists in my personal mythology that draws upon the compassion, wisdom and strength of the human character, as well as the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. They first appeared without my conscious understanding: serpents with breasts, butts, and human heads—shifting body parts, writhing and morphing, floating in an ephemeral space confined only by the edge of the painted surface. I began to sculpt these figures in clay and produce castings in various media to satisfy my need to experience them in full three-dimensional reality.

I have come to think of these human/animal/vegetable hybrids as psychic archetypes—allegories of passion, metamorphosis, dream, and memory.  My influences range from Carl Jung to ancient myths, religious icons and spiritual symbols from myriad cultures gleaned from my ongoing research to explore humanity on a conscious, as well as subconscious level. I am fascinated with the healing power of sacred objects.

An integral component of my sculpture series of multiples entitled “Seer” is an online blog I designed for participants to submit questions or comments to The Seer “…the sage, the oracle, the elder:  the ageless wisdom we seek as we question the inadequacy of our contemporary belief systems.” I will integrate contributions from anonymous donors for this ongoing project as text elements into “The Seer” installation. (http://asktheseer.blogspot.com)

Object-making is a vital part of my continuing journey to connect the personal to the universal: to pose questions about our place within contemporary life while mining the riches of a collective internal wisdom.

I create oil, acrylic, and mixed media paintings and work in a variety of sculptural media. My work has shown in over sixty group and solo exhibits in the United states since 1994.

“With their multiple heads and tangled bodies, her biomorphic creatures ooze subterranean impulses.”

- Mary Abbe, Minneapolis Star Tribune