Karen’s Creative Work & Speaking
Field Projects
Art Projects & Collaborations
Nurturing relationships and sharing knowledge with artists, writers, and creatives in art, design, writing, and magazine making is the current for my creative practice. As an artist and collaborator with a long history of collaborations, I’m pleased to share a few of the projects and events for which I’ve held a vision or have had the honor to support.
Hand Papermaking
Since 2017 I have been the designer for Hand Papermaking, a print publication that advances the art and practice of hand papermaking to a worldwide community, and has been in publication for over 35 years. First printed in 1986, this bi-annual print magazine publishes stories on the art and craft of hand papermaking from technique and approach in contemporary art to history, advocacy, equity, and community. Each issue includes tipped-in handmade paper samples. As design and print director, I’m honored to be part of this incredible team.
New Midwestern Nature Stories
New Midwestern Nature Stories is a collection of drawings and stories that explores how we perceive natural protected areas and our relationships with land and each other. Each drawing is an entry point into a story. Each story reimagines relationships, shifts language, and is a practice for remembering how to listen deeply to the natural world and to each other.
Giclée reproductions of select drawings from the New Midwestern Nature Stories collection are available in Limited-Edition.
Creative Studio In Nature
In 2020, I purchased 5.5 acres of woodland along the Namekagon River in Northern Wisconsin. As a visual artist and writer I have a passion for story-making and genre crossing in creativity, art, and design. This studio-in-the-making is a natural progression toward creating collaborative experiences that connect creative process to the natural world.
I grew up rurally, in the fields of Illinois, surrounded by Master Gardeners (my mom, for over 30 years, and now my dad), nature-lovers (my brother), and birding experts (my aunt and uncle had a trail named after them). I’m finding a rhythm in becoming a steward of this little woodland lot by learning from variety of communities and volunteering as a Minnesota Master Naturalist with training in the Big Woods, Big Rivers program.
The driveway that leads to the future Creative Studio site.
A small shed is the interim creative studio.
Toward a New Way of Being With Plants
Friday, June 18th, 2021
Keynote speaker: Suzanne Simard, author of Finding the Mother Tree
Event partners: U of M, Center for Biological Diversity, CIIS, and more
Toward a New Way of Being With Plants explores human/plant connections ethics and opportunities for developing more respectful and reciprocal relationships between humans and plants.
Co-presenting with my brother Dr. David Koapcz, MD, our talk Remembering Our Living Relationship With Plants was part of a 3-day conference featuring 30 international speakers.
With permission from artist and author Joseph Rael (Beautiful Painted Arrow), our talk highlighted an initiation ceremony filmed and edited by Karen in collaboration with Joseph and David. Joseph Rael was born in 1935 on the Southern Ute reservation to a chief’s granddaughter and a Tiwa-speaking Picuris native. He has authored 14 books, four of which were co-authored with David. The video coincided with the release of their book, "Becoming Medicine.”
Karen shared stories about working with Joseph and the importance of shifting language and ideas in order to promote consciously connecting to the living world.
SXSW Interactive Panelist
For her conceptualization of online arts & literature magazine Mental Contagion (2000-2008), Karen was invited to be a panel member of Fostering New Culture on the Internet at the SXSW 2005 Interactive Festival.
Keynote speakers: Malcom Gladwell and Ana Marie Cox.
Mental Contagion
For eight years, Karen collaborated monthly with writers across the U.S. to publish the arts & lit online magazine Mental Contagion featuring a national and global community of arts and culture creators.
At the dawn of the Internet, the magazine featured artists living in many countries around the world including, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Iran, Budapest, Russia, Peru, Australia, Italy, England, France, Ireland, and Scotland.
Within the 86 issues launched, notable features and interviews include: writers Andrei Codrescu, and Heather Mcelhatton, cinematographer Tim Cragg, light sculpture artist Grimanesa Amoros, mass culture photographer Chris Jordan, artist Andrea Carlson, explosion photographer Sarah Pickering, Rennie Sparks from the Handsome Family, Frank Warren, creator of PostSecret, and, of course, Craig of Craigslist.
MC was the platform that laid the foundation for Eric Hoffman’s biography on poet George Oppen. It was briefly a writing platform for Emily Johnson of Catalyst Dance. And, it was the predecessor publication to Loose Leaf Project.
