Karen has a degree in Commercial Art and Layout. She did graphic freelance work while living in California. This experience helps with design and composition for her paintings. She has taken classes in watercolor at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California, and she has studied watercolor in workshops taught by artists including Kathleen Conover, Ted Minchin, and Mark Mehaffey.  She continues to explore water media and develop her own style.

Spring of 2008 was accepted in the Michigan Watercolor Society. In 2007 Lansing Community College purchased one of her paintings through the “Art work on Campus” program. In 2005 she won First Place in the Mid-Michigan Art Guild Exhibit for “Old Delhi.”