Karen Clarkson, Choctaw artist and tribal member, lives in San Leandro, California with her husband Bill and their two dogs. A trip to Paris when she was ten inspired her to study the old masters but she feels she came into her own as an artist when she started creating portraits of Native Americans. She first started learning about art by drawing pictures of all her relatives. In this way she felt as if she knew many of her ancestors even though she had never met them. Saltypie is her first book.
Karen’s paternal grandmother Margaret Louis Nail (Maggie) was born in 1909 in Rush Springs, Oklahoma. When she was a young girl, she married a white man, who died in the Texas oil field where he was working. My father was only two years old at that time. Times were hard in the 1920’s and even harder for an Indian woman with a little boy. Maggie was soon forced to give her little boy up to her husband’s sister to raise since she could not make ends meet. Maggie died before Karen ever met her.
EXHIBITIONS
“Native America”: solo exhibit 2008, Napa California
Santa Fe Indian Market 2007, 2008
“American Portraits”: solo exhibit 2005, New Mexico SJ College Art Gallery
Choctaw Indian Art Show: 2004, 05,06,08 Choctaw Nation Museum Oklahoma
Conservatory Art Classic: 2005 Exhibition, Texas
Artist Showplace: 2005 Exhibition, Texas
AWARDS
First Prize, 2008 Painting Categoy: Choctaw Nation Art Show
First Prize, 2005 Gold Medal Award in Drawing Category: Conservatory Art Classic
First Prize, 2004 Fine Arts (amateur): Powwow.com
Heritage Award, 2006 All Media: Choctaw Nation Art Show
Second Prize, 2005 Other Media Category: Artist Showplace Competition
Second Prize, 2006 Painting Category: Choctaw Nation Art Show
Third Prize, 2005 Drawing Category: Choctaw Nation Art Show
Third Prize, 2005 Painting Category: Choctaw Nation Art Show
MEMBERSHIPS
Choctaw tribal member and registered Choctaw artist
National Registry of Native American Artists
US Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board member
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