Karen Nice-Webb
Artist Statement
I began my journey as an artist as a young child. I loved expressing myself on paper with pencil and crayon. I saw this as something I did “on the side” for birthday cards and celebrations.
I enjoy playing with color and design for fun, for healing, and to give expression to emotions of the heart, nature, and spirituality. The mediums I use are pencil, colored pencil, marker pen, and watercolor.
Living with health issues (Diabetes, Parkinson’s, Macular Degeneration, Depression) provides me with both opportunities and challenges. Creating art helps me in my coping, as well as leading to connecting with others who face hardships. Loss and gratitude are significant themes in my life that often motivate me to create expressions of the heart. As I struggled with depression, I realized I needed to carve out more time for making art as a spiritual discipline / prayer.
These three steps helped me with this choice:
- My Counselor suggested I try drawing my emotions.
- I joined a book study at church, The Artist’s Rule: nurturing your creative soul with monastic wisdom by Christine Valters Paintner.
- I chose to commit to draw every day for a year to deepen my spiritual discipline.
Approaching art in this way continues to be life giving and challenging for me. The presence of the Divine in my life experience is central to my inner healing, wholeness, and well-being. For me, making art is meditation and prayer, restorative and restful for my soul.