Karen is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for the MA Art and Design Suite, which consists of four programmes:MA Art Interdisciplinary Practice
MA Design Interdisciplinary Practice
MA Arts in Health
MA Creative Production and Curatorial Practice
Karen leads on the MA Art Interdisciplinary Practice and the MA Design Interdisciplinary Practice programmes and together with teaching, exhibiting, writing and presenting at conferences, Karen is also a visual artist, filmmaker and researcher. Her research explores the concepts of time, creativity and its relationship to video, site-specificity, and the philosophical complexities of arts and science collaborations.
Her artwork has evolved out of working site-specifically and on international residences. She has engaged in a variety of collaborations with diverse practitioners such as artists, sound artists, dancers, musicians, scientists, medical doctors and numerous other academics. The research as collaborative practice is set within the context of:
Contemporary Art
Arts and Science Research
Feminist Action
Collaborative Practice
Site-responsive approaches
Through a variety of media primarily video, installation, photography and performance, Karen has evolved her own poetic visual language that engages with the differences and similarities between painting, photography and film, creating a language of 'painterly reverie' that communicates difficult social issues with oblique, visual stanzas.
Karen has disseminated her work in Europe, America and Asia, through diverse artist residencies, exhibiting in gallery contexts and non-traditional spaces, presentations at film festivals, conferences, as well as writing for publications.
Previous held posts include, mentor for artists creating work for Arts and Science exhibitions, Arts Council Wales (2018 –2019), Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences (2012 – 2018), Bangor University and Lecturer on the MA Fine Art programme, School of Creative Studies and Media (2014 – 2018), Bangor University. From 2011 – 2014 Karen was an Honorary Researcher / Artist in Residence in the psychiatric department at Betsi Cadwaladwr University Health Board. In 2012 she became a board member of the Northern Arts and Science Network. Her research within the University of Salford’s, Contemporary Fine Art Practice Group (2009-2012), focused on narrative, sensory intelligences and kinaesthetic learning through creative frameworks.