Karen Azarnia – Caught Between

Do you remember being small? No one could harm you or separate you from your parents. But time goes by and suddenly, surprisingly, this close bond seems to fade. Children grow older, and this period of change is filled with tension for both youth and parent.

In her recent paintings Karen Azarnia depicts moments of childhood and adolescence, and the disruption between family members during this transitional time. While literature depicts youth beginning with a special experience of initiation, Karen Azarnia focuses on the subtle process of growing up. In Old Masters' paintings young girls cry over dead little birds symbolizing the loss of virginity, whereas Karen Azarnia avoids allegories or symbols. No drama, an indistinct feeling of loss is echoed in the paint washes she smothers her protagonists in.

In the painting "Two Sisters" a girl is sitting next to her sister, both in front of a motherly figure. The girl looks away with an enigmatic gaze, her head fading into the dark painted wash behind her. Though physically present and part of the small group, she is somewhere else.

I depict characters that exist in a space between memory, the imagined and the real. They are caught in transitional moments rife with potential for the next plot development in the narrative. Physical touch of painterly materials – with figures pushing in and out of pictorial space, in and out of delicate washes – reinforces the characters' state of flux. (Karen Azarnia)

But the gesture in her painting "Disruption", two hands letting loose, suggests a certain Renaissance fresco: Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam". Adam reaches out for the hand of the Father; their fingers almost touch. It's the moment before Creation, before God breathes life into man. In this moment all is possible and all is uncertain, yet worlds still separate man and Creator. Michelangelo caught the moment between in his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It is the moment between nothing and all, between void and life. So does Karen Azarnia: In her paintings she catches the moment between present and future, between reality and dream, the moment, when all is possible.

KAREN AZARNIA received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Recently, she has been the recipient of grants from both the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Currently, she lives and works in Chicago.

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