About Karen Coburn

At a very young age, Karen Coburn knew that she wanted to be an artist. 

“Since the age of 4, when I attended junior art classes at the Art Institute in Chicago, I have wanted to be an artist. Every sculpture was a work of magic. How did they do that? How could something that wasn’t real look as though at any minute it would shift its position on the pedestal and come alive? When the guards weren’t looking, I would pretend to sculpt, with kneaded erasers, on the enormous horses that flanked the stairs to the lower level of the museum where our classes were held."

Karen was born in Chicago, Illinois. She attended the University of Illinois, and earned her BA in Education from Roosevelt University in Chicago. She taught elementary school for a number of years before starting her own family. In the early 1980s she began to pursue her dream in earnest, earning both a BA and an MA in Art, graduating with Honors from California State University at Northridge. 

Since 1982, Karen has been a working artist, doing commissions for the movie industry, animators, individuals and corporations. She has worked in visual marketing and display aesthetics, as well as serving as designer, consultant and installer of holiday sets for shopping malls throughout the greater Los Angeles area. She continues to love teaching and conducts classes in sculpture and drawing for both adults and children and for 13 years taught art to 1st and 2nd graders at a private school in the Valley. 

As a sculptor, Karen has worked with a variety of media, including clay, bronze, steel, paper, acrylic and found materials. She has recently begun exploring the world of drawing and painting, working in pastels and various painting mediums. Karen is a member of Women Painters West. 

Her work has been exhibited nationally in galleries from Florida, Colorado, Texas, and California. Past exhibits include the Billy Graham Museum in Wheaton, Illinois; The Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. 

Karen’s work seeks to interject her love of nature and her fascination with our ability to grow and change. Her works, whether in sculpture or in graphics, deal with a rich range of feelings and expressions of moods.