Kari-Lise Alexander’s work is rooted in the old folklore of her Scandinavian heritage as well as inspired by her home in the Pacific Northwest. At a young age, Kari-Lise was always experimenting with paints, pencils, pastels and anything else she could get her hands on. In 2000, she studied fine art for two semesters but left college to pursue other interests. It wasn’t until spring of 2009 that her heart led her back to painting and she hasn’t stopped since.
Her style captures the unique qualities of both her heritage and her home. Combining them she’s able to create surreal worlds and explore common themes between the two. Kari-Lise’s work often reflects these worlds by the women, nature, and animals painted in them. Her work tends to leave the viewer feeling as if they are experiencing the same private moment in time as the subjects.
Kari-Lise works from her home studio in Seattle, WA where she lives with her husband, two poodles, and two rabbits.
“Being creative is the most challenging part about being an artist. And what I mean by that is, coming up with new concepts that are inspiring and not the same old, same old. Which can be really challenging. Especially if you’re on social media, being bombarded with what’s going on in the art world on a daily basis. You think you have an original idea but you’ve subconsciously somehow picked it up from somewhere else. I’ve had that happen with another artist, and our styles are completely different but our thought processes are the same. It’s like a doppelgänger version of myself. She always seems to do my idea before me and then I’ll run into it, and it’s happened 3 or 4 times. We’re inspired by the same things, somehow that translates into the same vision. I started painting white haired girls and I ran across someone else who paints white hair girls, which surprised me because I thought that was unique to me. So being original can be quite challenging.” – Kari-Lise Alexander (Beautiful Bizarre Magazine)
