Connection

Karen Light

Chicago, IL

First world, third world – we seem to float on different planes – but, really, it’s just this one world...  Here we are, sheltered in our intact homes, caught up in the bustle of our lives.  Little-by-little, we have covered it up – that web running through us all…  It’s abstract – a war happening in another country, foreign and distant, but it’s up to us to make it realistic – tangible.  We must imagine our homes in piles of rubble – our cities going up in smoke.  We must make others see it and feel the strands of the web pulling at the corners of our hearts.  Then, together, we can break through, reach out, and connect.

Bioggraphy:

Karen Light is a self-proclaimed ARTIVATOR, a term coined by community arts practitioner Kathryn Blume, meaning Artist + Activist + Educator.

In 2002, she received her BFA with a concentration in sculpture from Xavier University in Cincinnati.  As an artist, she explores crucial moments of truth through mixed media to create sculptural paintings.  Her experimental process is intertwined with the writing of prose, poetry and essay and she has exhibited in various places across Cincinnati and Chicago.

Karen later received her MA in Cultural Management with a focus on arts-for-social change in 2009 from City University, London.  Currently, she is applying her education and artistic skills in the development department of the American Friends Service Committee and, building on 12 years of working with young people, Karen also works as a Teaching Artist for Urban Gateways Center for Arts Education.