About
“Artist in Residence” at Kari-Lu Collage Studio, Karen Hegge Neloms has been fascinated with the process of creating collage since the late 1970s. A native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, but by then a resident of New York City, she came across the work of Romare Beardon and Joseph Cornell, among others who inspired her work. As a member of the New Century Artists Gallery in New York from 2000 to 2003, she participated in group shows twice a year and continued producing new works, some on commission.
Making collages, working only with found images, requires patience, imagination, a large dose of serendipity, good scissor paper-cutting skills, and a very careful gluing technique. Karen likes to think of the process as combining and contrasting beautiful images to create inviting, unique, unexpected and unusual new worlds. One starts with a blank canvas, not knowing how the finished work will look, but with faith that something grand will result, and when it eventually does, that is the thrill of it.
