After living in NYC for 23 years, Karen Mahan is currently living & working in her native state of Virginia. 

 Her work focuses on the relationship between things – between the worlds of the seen and unseen / daydreaming and night dreaming / the past and the present / the irrational and the logical. In Celtic spirituality, the belief of Animism (that objects, places, creatures, possess a distinct spiritual essence- that every object has a soul) greatly influences her work. The land has a spirit, objects have a spirit, as do people and all living beings.

In her most recent paintings, she explores familiar landscapes from childhood memories and personal objects in her mother’s home. As her mother’s illness has progressed and she know longer knows who she is, she uses the paint to show something and obfuscate it at the same time. She explores objects in her home, becoming reacquainted with her mother’s life all the while her mother is slowly forgetting everything. The daughter then sets off again on her own into new, unfamiliar, mystical lands.