NAME: Karina Martens
BIRTH PLACE: Denver, CO
BIRTH DATE: 7.24.69
BIOGRAPHY
Karina Martens, is a textile and collage artist who grew up in the Appalachians. Her portfolio is colorful, complex, and psychological. Karina has lived and traveled in Europe, Quebec, and throughout the United States. Her work has been displayed and sold in Texas, New York, Kansas, and Colorado. More of her work can be seen at http://www.runningstitches.com
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
Embroidery is a meditative art for me. I love to sit in a beautiful place and spend several hours stitching. I use the brightly colored racks of embroidery floss found in fabric stores to inspire me. As I stand and look at all the skeins of thread I am drawn to certain colors, which I then use as the starting points for my designs.
Startling transformations, such as dinosaurs into birds, or seeds into trees, intrigues me and I enjoy the process of transforming a plain piece of fabric into artwork. I like the ÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬ÅwomenÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ã¢ââ¬Å¾Ã¢s workÃÆââââ¬Å¡Ã¬Ãâàof being a textile artist. The world is full of incredible works of art women have created using textiles as a medium. In my own history my grandmothers saved their scraps of fabric to painstakingly build into quilts. Whenever I transform a skirt with embroidery I feel connected to that part of my heritage that saves and sews.
My latest piece, Memories of Favorite Places, was embroidered over the course of several years. Each panel depicts a favorite place of one of my lifelong women friends. Rural Norway, Northern India, Mexico City, and Montreal are represented rendering yet another transformation: memories into thread.
In the past two years my art shifted to focus on collage more than textiles. These collages also involve an elaborate process that transforms old objects into new art. To make a collage I start with a stack of fashion magazines and outdated newspapers. After tearing out images that appeal to me I start to layer them on canvas covering each layer with paint. Some parts of a collage may have up to ten layers. After the paper and paint collage is complete I scan the piece and spend several more weeks digitally shifting colors and texture in Photoshop. The final digital file is sent to a printer who prints the image on canvas.
