Biography

A graduate of Montana University, Billings, Karen Kreyeski continued her education first at the Memphis Academy of Art then at the University of Nevada Reno. Karen fell in love with Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains as well as the openness of the high desert plains when first seeing Nevada in the 80’s. She lives in Northern Nevada with her husband and where her children and grandchildren live nearby. Kreyeski’s work has received many awards and recognition, and is exhibited and collected in several western states and France. She received the life altering award, the Thomas Moran Fellowship, to live and work in Yellowstone Park the year after the multiple park fires in 1993. Living between the charred earth and surviving forest was extremely moving, creating in Karen a passion for painting nature with a sensitivity to the interaction of human activity, philosophy and politics to the land and often, to those animals that live within. Artistic educational experiences that most influence her current work began at Johnson, Vermont Art Center, followed by working with Maxine Masterfield at the Asilimar Center in California, then with Sant Sabaugh Khalsa and Bailey Doogan at Anderson Ranch in Snow Mass, Colorado, Joellyn Duesberry at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts in Grand Junction, and with Tucson, Arizona artist Francheskaa. These contemporary artists imparted messages Karen takes with her to this day: be bold; listen to nature; work with the spirit of surprise; build a history on the painting surface and pay attention to good design. Karen was inspired by these women’s interpretation of humanity, of the land and its inhabitants. Karen also admires Nevada artist, Nancy Peppin, known for social satire in her Twinkie Series.