Biography

Karen Schory is a practicing artist and an educator. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. Schory was hired immediately after graduate studies to teach art and design at Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, Kansas. 

With one national competition and two international exhibitions already on her resume before graduating, Schory continued her own art work while teaching fulltime. Within two years, her work was accepted in another six national print competitions and was represented by two galleries in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For over 30 years Schory has lived a dual existence: one on the East coast and one in the Midwest; one as an educator and the other as a visual artist.

Being selected to participate in the very first Artist Inc. workshops (2009) in Kansas City, Missouri proved quite valuable in allowing Schory to retire from her Professor of Art position and return to her native Pennsylvania to jump start her art career. She currently resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Artist Statement

The work is very much about place —a particular moment, at a particular time, in a particular place. Most of the images are landscapes but with landscape being broadly used. Some of the images  are cityscapes. Some are more like a still life —a record of objects. The images are enhanced to reflect the ideal rather than the simply real. They are at once experiences and imaginings —both real and dream.

Venice Series

The thirty prints in this series utilize a square format which has been bisected either vertically or horizontally. Photographic images are layered to create a composite image of a certain aspect of Venice — boats, bridges, commerce, flooding, architecture, etc. forming a portrait of this unique place.

2014, archival digital print, 36x35 inches, $750

Triptych Series

This ongoing series of prints employs photographs captured over the course of years of traveling through parts of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East as well as throughout the United States. Each triptych is comprised of multiple overlaid photographs constructed in a three unit grid and then digitally printed on a single sheet of paper. The transparently layered images are a composite of place.

2013 archival digital print, 46x35 inches, $800

Juxtaposition Series

Thirty-four cityscapes of Rome make up this series. Using a square format and dividing the space into two halves, straight street shots of architecture in Rome are juxtaposed. As the images compare and contrast the place that is Rome, each print becomes an abstraction of experience and imagination.

2014, archival digital print, 36x35 inches, $750

Reflection Series

This series is composed of 19 individual photographs digitally printed.  The photographs were captured over the course of one month in Florence, Italy. The subject is a 360 degree view of the Duomo, not the actual Duomo but rather reflections of the Duomo. Each image is a single straight exposure. The play of light and form are all reflections from different surfaces that surround the Duomo in Florence.

2013, archival digital print, 28x46 inches, $800