Story Behind the Artist - Karen Lee Fisher

Most children, when they’re young, long for the days they can run outside to play with their friends, hide and seek, hopscotch, and other childhood games that allow them to be free from the walls of daily life and routine. Then there are those who find their passion early and only long for the moments they can get lost in their own little world and nurture their skill as though their soul’s happiness depends on it.

This was the story for Karen Lee Fisher.

Karen was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Her passion for art began at the early age of twelve and she would spend hours alone in her room drawing and painting. Karen always felt different from the other children in her neighborhood who would gather outside to play games while she had other interests. Something called to her from within to be alone, to imagine and create. Art became her best friend and companion.

As a child, the only interest Karen had outside was to find beautiful small rocks, which she would arrange in groups and imagine being little enough that she could hide within the spaces of those rock groups. The rocks were her escape and, in her later years, would continue to emerge in her prismacolor drawings. 

In school Karen would spend most of the time in the art room. She had wonderful art teachers who would inspire and encourage her creative spirit. After graduating high school, Karen attended the Maryland Institute, College of Art and was awarded the Ferguson Merit Scholarship. She graduated Magna Cum Lauda with a BFA in Art Education and Photography and went on to finally turn her childhood passion into reality.

After graduating college, Karen spent 4 months traveling across the United States. She loved to venture out into remote areas, where she would hike and collect rocks just as she would when she was a child. She felt the rocks held a silent strength and sensual beauty, to her they were mysterious and timeless and told stories about the earth that nothing else could. 

After four months of traveling, Karen settled in San Francisco for four years. The first year in San Francisco she immersed herself into an intension study period, working on a series of prismacolor pencil drawings of Mono Lake, California from which she had been deeply moved during her travels and inspired by the unusual landscape and rock formations called the Tufa Towers. She had a one woman show and sold 50 % of the art work she created. In 1984, Karen moved to Los Angeles, where she now resides, and became the art teacher at the Gindi Maimonides Academy.

Earlier this year (2021), one of her drawings from her one woman show of prismacolor pencil drawings became a part of the permanent collection at the San Jose Museum. 

Karen continues to paint peaceful imaginary landscapes, all inspired by her love of color, light, nature, peace, and tranquility, just as she did when she was a child. “I like to paint landscapes that create the illusion of space so that the viewer can imagine walking into them, finding a place of calmness, away from the busy world,” Karen tells us.

Some people go their entire lives without feeling a sense of belonging or real purpose but Karen knew what hers was when she was 12 and hasn’t detoured from it since. 

Karen often says, “I paint worlds of stillness and balance, reflecting my passion for Iyengar yoga and meditation… Art helps [me] express my deep feelings for the beauty of nature and love for life.”

Karen’s award winning art has been viewed in many juried exhibitions, galleries, and in private collections. She is even now in the permanent collection at the San Jose Museum in California and we are so honored to have her a part of our online marketplace for talented female artists. Be sure to visit her online booth, Karen Lee Fisher Fine Art Studio, to see more of her beautiful collections.

**Editor’s note: This article was composed as a joint effort between Karen herself along with the Made By Her staff.