Karen's experience as a creative practitioner is broad, she engages audiences in creative processes, assisting participants in questioning, exploring, inventing and enjoying visual art. She works with a range of groups including schools, families, young people, adults and community. Karen's Enhanced DBS certificate is dated January 2025 and she has Public Liability Insurance.
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QUAD Derby 2024
Photographic/collage self portrait - Horizons 6th Form, St Martins School
Inspired by Maria Rivens carefully considered, playful and meticulous work the students at Horizons explored self portraiture and college. To begin the project I invited the students to draw around their hands and fill this drawing with words/colour describing their positive traits.
We decorated masks inspired by the positive trait work, with an option to wear these for their self portrait photographs and during visits to Derby Museums and the city centre the young people took photographs to use as college around their self portraits. It was wonderful to witness all these elements flowing together to create artworks as individual as the young people themselves.
Their work will be exhibited at Young Format at FORMAT25, QUAD, Derby in March 2025.
Thank you to QUAD and Mandy for the support in creating and sharing this experimental and exploratory project.
Positive traits
Collage by Philip
Collage by Nicholas
Bold colour by Morgan
Friendship by Elis
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QUAD Derby 2024
Experimental Drawing Project - Horizons 6th Form, St Martins School
It's an absolute pleasure to work with the talented students from Horizons. The young people bought a curious energy and have-a-go attitude which was wonderful to get swept along with. It was fascinating to get to know the groups signature styles over our five week project, and I learned so much from their explorations in drawing. I'm keen to playfully expand what drawing can be and the group jumped right in: mark-making with Lego, capturing movement using sculpting wire and creating frenetic marks with spinning drawing tools (to name a few of our activities). The engaging and far reaching collections in Derby Museums provided rich opportunities for focused concentration and in-depth looking and we discovered comfortable corners in these spaces in which to work together, relax and dream.
To follow the project week by week, see my Instagram posts: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5 🙂
Thank you to Morgan and Mandy for the support in creating and sharing this experimental and exploratory project.
Drawing QUAD with Lego blocks
Mark-making, printing and drawing Derby architecture using Lego blocks
Crayon rubbings of 3D wire drawing capturing movement
Exploring tonal qualities by the River Derwent
Pencil drawing of The Museum of Making
Transforming drawing into pattern with Interlace, The Museum of Making
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QUAD Derby 2023
Experimental Drawing Project - Horizons 6th Form, St Martins School
Was thrilled when asked to develop and lead 9 weekly sessions of experimental drawing with Horizons SEND 6th Form. St Martins School is located in Derby City centre, not far from QUAD - the perfect setting for the group to explore, interact and take centre stage in the city!
Activities were playful and varied, using outdoor sites and local museum spaces creatively. Each week we walked and drew, chatted and shared responses before returning to the participation space at QUAD to develop our drawings.
Activities included drawing with seeds onto compost and watching them grow, drawing while moving to music, making drawings on rice paper and leaving them by the River Derwent to melt away... The group were brilliant in giving every activity a go and a total delight to work alongside. Horizons 6th Form fed back that this was the standout project of the year at QUAD because of the impact it had on the students.
Thank you to Daisy, Catriona and Mandy for the support in creating and sharing this lovely project.
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Drawing trains moving through the model railway at The Museum of Making
Self-portraits planted among the tulips and daisies
Considered pompom placement, framing the familiar
Framing and photography
Adding colour to rubbings made in the Market Place
Drawing on a postcard to send to a loved one
Visitor leafing through the fantastic sketchbooks
Sketchbooks at the 'A Celebration of Creativity' event at QUAD
Photographs by Catriona Kelly, Creative Education Producer
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QUAD Derby 2022
Everybody Draw - The Big Draw Festival
All-day drop-in drawing event in celebration of The Big Draw Festival. Inspired by QUAD and it's historic Market Place setting, participants created a huge communal drawing, collaborating, responding and working with others drawings in sharing the beauty and wonder of the everyday.
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QUAD Derby 2022
Draw Together, GoldsQUAD
Series of playful drawing workshops for participants aded 50+ exploring line, tone, form, colour and scale.
Timed mark-making with word prompts like - squiggle, circle, dot, zigzag...
Exploring mark-making and tonal qualities
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QUAD Derby 2021
Online content
Please click for vimeo: Rolling Print
Two videos created as online content for school and young people's programmes at QUAD Derby.
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Out & About 2017
Misty Brimham Rocks
Framing our wool drawings
Using our bodies as sculpture and to tell stories
This isn't sculpture! (participant comment)
How has this project made you powerful?
Handmade sketchbooks covered in YSP mud
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Creative Practitioner, 2010-2017
Clare Woods - The Unquiet Head
Richard Long - Artist Rooms
Heather and Ivan Morison inspired puppets
Celebrating the Grand Depart
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De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea
Creative Practitioner, 2016
Creative Practitioner, 2016
Musical youth
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Creative Practitioner, 2014-2016
Agder Folkehøgskole, Søgne, Norway
Creative Practitioner, 2015
Year 6
Ice Trap
Year 3
Tales of Wisdom & Wonder
Year 1
Emily Brown and the Thing
Year 4
I Was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers
Year 2
One Night, Far From Here
Year 5
The London Eye Mystery
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Creative Practitioner, 2015
Wrapped figure by Anton
Colin spray painting
Connie transforming her sculpture with paint
Wrapped tin cans
Max and Anton photographing their work collaboratively
The outdoor setting suited Frida's work
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High Light, 2013
A space to consider sound and mood
Building with triangles
Light drawing
Shadow of Emley Moor Transmitting Station (330 meters high!)
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Young persons metal and blue light sculpture
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The Hepworth Wakefield
A September To Remember, 2012
The Art House, Wakefield
Sites in Sight Artist in Residence, 2012
Creative Partnerships, Luton
Enquiry School, 2010
Future Creative, Kent
Landmark Link Programme, 2008
The Hepworth Wakefield
A September To Remember, 2012
Intervention in local cityscape
Mark making with clay slip
Learning navigation skills from walk leader Pete
Creative hub
Until The Far Distance - featuring drawings made by GPS tracking device
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Sites in Sight Artist in Residence, 2012
The shop
Visit to The Hepworth Wakefield
French knit coster
My response to the residency - work in progress
Sharing event at The Art House for the Wakefield Artwalk
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Enquiry School, 2010
Sun print
Staff INSET
Making reading room cushions from the children's fabric
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Landmark Link Programme, 2008
What does 50 meters look like?
Bluewater - pupils ask the public for their opinions
Site for the sculpture
Causing a stir
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