The Creative Process
Creativity, in whatever form it
chooses to pop up, is the essence
of life. I am thankful that it manifests in me as a
compelling urge
to get images down on a surface, and that it comes with
a
particular kind of visual attention and connection between
the
brain and the hands that makes them recognizable.
Sometimes,
when I am very lucky, it breathes life into them, for which
I am
truly grateful.
Photo by Chick Harrity
Biography
Karen Lynn Ingalls began
drawing as soon as she could clutch
a crayon, and drew constantly and precociously (never
stick
figures, according to her mother). She earned degrees in
Art,
English Literature, and World and Comparative Literature,
with
high or highest honors, and teaching credentials in both
Art
and English. Her teachers have included Will Collier,
Maurice
Lapp, Jean Yeats, Max Hein, John Watrous, Jim Rosen,
Elizabeth
Quandt, Pam Beadle, and Walt Kuhlman. She has also been
influenced by, among others, the work of Wayne Thiebaud,
Gabriele Munter, the Fauves, Wolf Kahn, Richard Mayhew,
Birger Sandzen, Mary Cassatt, and Carl Larsson.
Ingalls's painting focuses
primarily on people and on endangered
landscapes, landscapes threatened by development. Her
work
has been exhibited on both west and east coasts, in
places
ranging from the Monterey Conference Center's Alvarado
Gallery
in Monterey, California, to New York City's Lincoln Center,
in the
Cork Gallery. Articles about her artwork have appeared in
the
Weekly Calistogan, the Santa Rosa Press
Democrat, the Salinas
Californian, the Monterey Herald, and the
Monterey County
Coast Weekly, among others, and she has been
interviewed
about her artwork on public radio station KAZU in Pacific
Grove,
California.
Ingalls currently lives and paints on a ranch in California's Mayacamas Mountains, not too far west of Calistoga, California. She has spent the last three spring seasons creating statues of Peanuts characters in Peanuts on Parade, sponsored by the city of Santa Rosa and the Charles M. Schulz Museum, and welcomes visitors to her studio each year during Napa Valley Open Studios.
Her artwork can also currently be seen at The Silver Grape in Calistoga, California; the Calistoga Roastery &emdash; The Gates of Heaven, a solo show featuring a series of skyscapes - in Calistoga; the Bank of America &emdash; Calistoga Artists Open Studios Preview &emdash; in Calistoga; Trinity Health in Santa Cruz, California; and Hummingbird Creek Art Studio on The Right Ranch during Napa Valley Open Studios. She also teaches art in Santa Rosa and Calistoga, California.
In The News
Selected Exhibitions
2005
The Flying Fish of
the Napa River, several locations including
Copia, Napa, California; the Napa Valley Museum,
Yountville,
California.
Land and Sky,
sponsored by the Calistoga Art Center, Calistoga
Roastery, Calistoga, California. Solo show.
Peanuts on Parade:
It's Your Town, Charlie Brown, public art
show sponsored by the City of Santa Rosa and the Charles M.
Schulz
Museum, Santa Rosa, California.
Calistoga Art
Center Members Show, WestAmerica Bank, Calistoga,
California.
2004
California
Landscapes, Hummingbird Creek Art Studio, Santa
Rosa,
California. Solo show.
California
Landscapes, Bank of America, Calistoga, California.
Solo
show.
Calistoga Art
Guild Members Show, various locations, Calistoga,
California.
2003
Holiday Members
Show, Sebastopol Center for the Arts,
Sebastopol, California.
Celebration, Plaza Arts Gallery, Healdsburg, California.
Fortune,
Cultural Arts Council of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa,
California.
Portraits, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, California.
Moved by the Land, Finley Center, Santa Rosa, California.
