Medium: Drawing & Paper Arts , Mixed Media , Visual Arts

Contact Information

(864) 640-9656

[email protected]

www.karabender.com

Artist Statement

"My work is largely ethnographic and is meant to give shape and form to various
contemporary issues including healthcare struggles, media bias, police brutality, war, femininity and sexual representation. Many of my pieces are quite large and meticulously overworked in a nearly obsessive manner. Some also have collage elements that consist of separate drawings, which are then cut out and pieced together to form the composition.

I believe the manner of image creation is important, and symbolic of the internal mindset created when confronting or rationalizing the issue being illustrated.
In the past I had been focusing on various disparate elements working together to form a narrative space. As this process evolved, my drawings would often explore a symbolic and literal destruction and regrowth. Images would be mashed together, deeply layered, cut through, and warped; and even the paper itself would sometimes be hand made from documents, trash, and other materials from the world around me. Remnants of personal relics, ashes of loved ones, grass, and blood were integrated into the fibers of the paper during its creation to help form an artifact that is unique and deeply personal in nature. They reflect my personal anxieties in today’s political climate, and often take a new look at traditional themes such as proverbs or myths."