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Hi there!  I am a painter living in Salem, Massachusetts.  Originally from Northern Maine, I received a Bachelors of FIne Art and a Bachelors from the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 2013.  While at the University I also studied Art Education and received a second Bachelors degree in  2014.  I studied under the Bragg Tuition Merit Scholarship and was highly involved in campus and community life.

 Currently I am intrigued by the relationship of the maker and the viewer.  Creating a painting is a highly personal and you cannot help but put yourself into the painting through the process of making it.  The viewer reflects on the painting once the maker is finished.  Even in the most highly rendered paintings the end experience is coincidentally highly collaborative and completely different for each individual.

In my abstract paintings I teeter on the edge of excess and balance.  I stride to have a continuation of mark making, movement, and color.  The marks are intuitive and driven from a stream of consciousness often driven from poems or short phrases.  The paintings are not over analyzed or searched for a meaning until the painting is deemed complete.   The tools I use during making a painting are only limited to what is within arms reach.  Anything from my fingers, plastic wedges, pastels, cardboard, (and accidentally my cat on occasion...) is fair game.  I think my unconventional method with my tools is what feeds the paintings energy and my own reflection.

My work can be found in private and public collections across the US and abroad.  Teaching and sharing my artwork has become a significant part of my studio practice.  Selected homes of  where my artwork can be found include Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Alaska, as well as a private residence abroad in England.  In 2013 I received the Wanbaugh Purchase Award from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.  You can find my painting "Self II" included the permanent art collection installed at the University.

Contact karrie.brawn@gmail.com

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