Faculty

Instructor Featured in Daily Pilot Story on Balboa Island ArtWalk

FIDM Instructor Karen Stein, who teaches Technical Flat Sketch in the Merchandise Product Development major, is featured in a Daily Pilot story published by the Los Angeles Times on last weekend’s Balboa Island ArtWalk. Around 2,500 attendees gathered at the 26th annual juried show, which returned after a year off due to the pandemic. The work of 80 exhibiting artists were on display while live music played in the background.

Karen, who has taught part-time at FIDM for 18 years, has created abstract and mixed media paintings since she closed her last Lifestyle Boutique in 2014. “I took a painting class in Brentwood and started attending various workshops to expand my technique of recycling sustainable handcrafted artwork,” she said. “I usually work on panel boards starting with mixed papers as a base, add acrylic paint, then sand away the layers only to repeat the process again.” 

The FIDM Instructor incorporates junk mail, tissue papers, shopping bags, bills, cardboard, and handmade original designs “on every substrate imaginable.” The modern finished artworks are ecologically friendly and visually engaging — and completed with layers of varnish. Karen showed 14 large acrylic paintings and mixed media pieces and detailed crayon and pen drawings at the Balboa Island ArtWalk. “I would love to teach this process at a workshop held at FIDM,” she said. 

Photo via Daily Pilot/LA Times

Categories:  Merchandise Product Development Faculty