Karen Eisele

Website: kareneisele.com
Email: k2eisele@hotmail.com
Instagram: @kareneiseleartist

Artist’s Statement

I make meticulously rendered figurative paintings using methods and materials borrowed from Byzantine iconography -   contemporary storytelling about how we see ourselves, and how fashion co-opts historical imagery to seduce us. The series began when I noticed how closely fashion images echoed traditional icons, both relying on stylized narrative to hold our attention. I'm drawn to egg tempera: hand-mixing egg yolk and white wine with pigments ground from raw materials. Despite its precision, the method affords real freedom in the stylization of a face, a fold of fabric — the paradox of an ancient template framing contemporary lives anew.