Work samples

  • All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun
    All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun

    All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun, 2024, cyanotypes and gold leaf on solar panel, 40x70", a commissioned work for the ReGENERATE exhibition at Maryland Art Place, September-November 2024

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About Karen

Baltimore City  

Karen Klinedinst is an artist using photography to explore themes of place, our response to nature, and our impact on the environment. Using digital, analog and alternative photo processes, she creates richly layered images that combine the real with the imagined. 

She has exhibited at Maryland Art Place, Creative Alliance, University of Maryland Global College, Center for Photographic Arts, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts (Maryland), Biggs… more

View Karen's Resume
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All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun

All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun was commissioned for the reGENERATE exhibition at Maryland Art Place, September-November 2024. Each invited artist was asked to create a work of art from a donated solar panel interpreting the theme of power and regeneration.

During my daily summer walks, I foraged flowering plants found in the wild meadows of Wyman Park. Inspired by Anna Atkins, the English botanical artist and first woman photographer, I used the 19th century cyanotype process to create a series of photograms from foraged plants, celebrating the power of the sun, central to sustaining all life on this planet.

  • All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun
    All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun

    All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun, 2024, cyanotypes and gold leaf on solar panel, 40x70"

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    • Ephemeral/Ephemerals

    Walking has always been essential to my creative process. Since my husband’s death, it has also become a vital means of processing my grief. Walking compels me to slow down and look for signs of life after a long, dark winter, mirroring my journey through grief and towards new life.

    During my spring walks since his passing, I have searched for and collected ephemerals emerging from the forest floor. Inspired by Anna Atkins book “Photographs of British Algae (1843)”, I use the cyano-lumen process to honor the essence of these brief, beautiful lives.

    After dipping the plants in cyanotype sensitizer, I create a composition on long-expired black and white darkroom photo paper discovered in my studio, giving this old paper new life. The photo paper is then exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet light, embracing the unpredictability of weather and lighting conditions, and requiring me to relinquish control.

    The resulting cyano-lumens are scanned, capturing a moment in time. The original works remain chemically unfixed and are themselves ephemeral, destined to change over time. This process is filled with surprises and serendipity, serving as a meditation on finding beauty in impermanence.

    Read more about this project

    • Dutchmans Breeches, No. 1
      Dutchmans Breeches, No. 1

      Dutchmans Breeches, No. 1, 2024, archival pigment print on paper of cyano-lumen, 13.5x16"

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    • Tidal Dreams

    The Tidal Dreams series explores the concept of wilderness in the urban environment and challenges our perception of Baltimore’s urban landscape. 
     
    This series was photographed at Black Marsh Natural Area on the east side of Baltimore, on property once owned by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The property was once used as a hunting preserve for the steel company’s executives. For almost a century, the Bethlehem Steel Company was one Baltimore’s biggest employers and one of the northern Chesapeake Bay’s biggest polluters; yet, they were good stewards of this particular place. When Bethlehem Steel closed, they sold the property for 5.3 million dollars to the state of Maryland. 
     
    Black Marsh Natural Area is considered one of the finest examples of a tidal marsh on the upper Chesapeake Bay, despite being surrounded by an industrial, urban environment. It’s a landscape of memories, and a reminder of what the natural landscape of Baltimore was like prior to industrialization. Climate change, rising sea levels and surrounding development threaten this fragile ecosystem home to native wetland plants and rare, threatened or endangered birds.
     
    The series’ richly layered landscapes blur the lines between fantasy and reality. They are printed on translucent vellum and backed with white gold or silver leaf, giving the intimate prints dimension, luminosity, and a little bit of magic.

    The Tidal Dreams series was exhibited in March 2019 at Project 1628 in Baltimore. Two pieces from the Tidal Dream series are part of the permanent collection of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. 

    Read more about this project

    • The Egret Trilogy
      The Egret Trilogy
      The Egret Trilogy, a trio of archival pigment prints on vellum with white gold leaf, 8.5x11" each
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    • Tidal Dreams (continued)

    The Tidal Dreams series explores the concept of wilderness in the urban environment and challenges our perception of Baltimore’s urban landscape. 
     
    This series was photographed at Black Marsh Natural Area on the east side of Baltimore, on property once owned by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The property was once used as a hunting preserve for the steel company’s executives. For almost a century, the Bethlehem Steel Company was one Baltimore’s biggest employers and one of the northern Chesapeake Bay’s biggest polluters; yet, they were good stewards of this particular place. When Bethlehem Steel closed, they sold the property for 5.3 million dollars to the state of Maryland. 
     
    Black Marsh Natural Area is considered one of the finest examples of a tidal marsh on the upper Chesapeake Bay, despite being surrounded by an industrial, urban environment. It’s a landscape of memories, and a reminder of what the natural landscape of Baltimore was like prior to industrialization. Climate change, rising sea levels and surrounding development threaten this fragile ecosystem home to native wetland plants and rare, threatened or endangered birds.
     
    The series’ richly layered landscapes blur the lines between fantasy and reality. They are printed on translucent vellum and backed with white gold or silver leaf, giving the intimate prints dimension, luminosity, and a little bit of magic.

    The Tidal Dreams series was exhibited in March 2019 at Project 1628 in Baltimore.

    Read more about this project

    • Winter Sonata, Nos.1-3
      Winter Sonata, Nos.1-3
      Winter Sonata, Nos.1-3, trio of archival pigment prints on vellum with silver leaf, 8.5x11" each
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    • Tidal Dreams (continued)

    The Tidal Dreams series explores the concept of wilderness in the urban environment and challenges our perception of Baltimore’s urban landscape. 
     
    This series was photographed at Black Marsh Natural Area on the east side of Baltimore, on property once owned by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The property was once used as a hunting preserve for the steel company’s executives. For almost a century, the Bethlehem Steel Company was one Baltimore’s biggest employers and one of the northern Chesapeake Bay’s biggest polluters; yet, they were good stewards of this particular place. When Bethlehem Steel closed, they sold the property for 5.3 million dollars to the state of Maryland. 
     
    Black Marsh Natural Area is considered one of the finest examples of a tidal marsh on the upper Chesapeake Bay, despite being surrounded by an industrial, urban environment. It’s a landscape of memories, and a reminder of what the natural landscape of Baltimore was like prior to industrialization. Climate change, rising sea levels and surrounding development threaten this fragile ecosystem home to native wetland plants and rare, threatened or endangered birds.
     
    The series’ richly layered landscapes blur the lines between fantasy and reality. They are printed on translucent vellum and backed with white gold or silver leaf, giving the intimate prints dimension, luminosity, and a little bit of magic.

    The Tidal Dreams series was exhibited in March 2019 at Project 1628 in Baltimore.

    Read more about this project

    • Rites of Spring, Nos.1-3
      Rites of Spring, Nos.1-3
      Rites of Spring, Nos. 1-3, archival pigment prints on vellum and white gold leaf, 12.5x19" each
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