Karen Sako is an award winning mixed media artist, graphic designer, and art instructor with a BFA in Visual Communications from The Illinois Institute of Art. She enthusiastically tackles life with an optimistic outlook and continually invests her time, trade secrets and findings with her students at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich IL. Her goal is to ignite the next generation of pioneering creative visionaries and thinkers. Karen’s unique artwork hangs in private collections around the world. She is a member of the Midwest Collage Society and the National Collage Society.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Constantly conflicted between being a graphic designer
or a painter, I realized I could fuse the two together and
found each discipline complimenting the other. I challenge
myself as an artist by melding traditional art principles
with exploratory techniques and materials overtaking the
unexplored foot paths of contemporary artwork. By using
soulful marks, energetic colors and multiple complex
transparent layers of oil and cold wax medium allows me
to achieve depth in my paintings. Elements are then
revealed that push and pull the viewer through the
composition directing into existence a suggestive
connection to my imagination. This instinctual  process
allows me to create a unique connection with each work
of art which is both a sensorial and emotional experience
for the viewer.