I am thrilled to have been selected to participate in a group exhibit titled "Kaleidoscope Of Color" at Allied Arts Center.

I submitted a portion of my people project or the 8x8 stitched collages that I call Portraiture Within A Boundary.

Portraiture Within A Boundary:  Deconstructed faces are puzzled into a specific space. They assemble themselves accordingly. Often, especially after trauma, lines are drawn. A person may execute a divide as a method of self protection. This is my dynamic, this is how I portray myself, this is what I want you to see. Or this is what I keep to myself. 

The Technique: I apply crazy quilt style technique but with paper. I border each subject with 1/2 strips. I fill in the rest of the dimension with 1 inch strips. I then machine stitch in zig zag to secure design and to embellish the patterns. Each piece is bound. Much like a quilt is. No two collages are alike. It took me over a year to perfect this particular collage style. As things pandemic continued. I made art for the sake of the calm it provided me. I latched onto an 8x8 dimension for my work.  The limitations felt reliable and safe.
 

About the Artist:  Washington based artist Karen Hanrahan, works with found magazine pages to narrate the challenges of her life into a collage format. Her self taught multi-disciplinary work expresses her tenacious spirit by processing personal topics such as rape, loneliness, trauma and poverty. Karen’s work is acknowledged as organic, intimate and visually engaging. She has exhibited in Chicago, Seattle and Bellingham. 

How these hang when grouped together like a quilt.

The works of the other artists.