KAREN TASHJIAN
Karen J.S. Tashjian received a BS in Design, Fine Arts, and Architecture, and a B.Arch. in Architecture, both from Cornell University. She has been painting seriously for about 24 years and currently paints full-time. In the past, she practiced architecture in NYS as a licensed architect, and taught Architectural Design Studio at the University at Buffalo for 18 years. She has a painting studio in Buffalo in the industrial Niagara Frontier Food Terminal., and also one at home, a passive solar residence which she designed.
"My goal is to live life as an artist, directed by my creativity and by my moral compass. I aspire to live an impassioned life that is proactive and committed to the things that I value."
ARTIST STATEMENT
My paintings have an architectural sensibility. I study the way things are connected and organized. I am interested in how we experience things and create memories. My formal training as an architect creates a visual filter that enables me to see these relationships in places often deemed mundane.
My new work represents a significant shift for me. I have left a more image-based practice for one that exists purely in my head. I am more interested in lines and organizations, color and color relationships, the building of layers, transparency, and texture, obscuring specific information, and ultimately of creating space on the canvas. I have found that my architectural background is alive and active as I paint.
Architects notoriously bring precision and control of outcomes. I work to let go of some of these tendencies and respect also, intuition and feeling. Many times I release precision into the paint and bring it back in a more intuitive way.
I savor layers of information and vestigial lines; remnants of another moment or thought. I constantly consider color for the sublime joy it can deliver as well as nuances and subtle shifts in relationships.
Years ago I had a professor who famously said, “Never draw more in the morning than you can erase in the afternoon”. I edit with paint, but also through erasure and the removal of paint by rubbing and scraping. I ultimately want to create a new space, a new experience. The huge challenge is knowing when it is enough and stopping then.