WHEN it comes to art, Karen Cheok can rightly say that she was just born this way. Her conviction is so deep that, fresh off graduating from a three-year Fine Arts course at Malaysian Institute of Art, the 23 year-old became a professional painter.
“I started my career last year. Right now, I’m a full-time working artist,” revealed Karen, who also owns an online business based on her art.
While other children took lessons in ballet or piano, Karen’s parents sent her for art class from the age of nine.
“I took art lessons until my high school,” she said.
She had a huge interest in art even at that young age.
“My parents decided I should take art lessons and see if it worked out. Later on in my last year of high school, we had to decide which college and course to choose for my career path,” Karen noted.
“At that time, I was not interested in anything else except art. So I told my parents I wanted to go to art school. Right after I finished school, I applied for MIA and began my education in art.”
Paint is the way
Karen was exposed to a multitude of art mediums, from screenprinting to animation.
“Digital art was not really my favourite medium. I was still fond of traditional painting methods like using gouache and acrylic,” she elaborated.
“It’s really easy to manipulate the paint that you can touch. Because when I create, I don’t really have a specific idea in mind. What I usually do is I see what I have, and then I would manipulate the paint and materials to see what is produced”.
Karen further explained that she prefers paint and traditional painting methods due to the texture and seeing how paint reacts to other mediums.
Nothing extra
It is not a revelation that the more abstract an art piece is, the more subjective it gets.
For Karen’s artwork, created with vivid splashes of colour and wildly kaleidoscopic, there is no deep meaning, no attached political or background issues. The paintings are just that; paintings.
“It’s directly from my imagination and I want to create it as it is. In my final year at art school, I wanted to do something different because it was my final chance to get the lecturers to teach and guide me,” she explained.
As a final year student, Karen chose environmental issues as the main theme; it was something new that she never tried before.
“I still went with it and produced a black-and-white stencil drawing. For me, my final year was an experimental period to try something new”.
When the feedback came from her lecturers, Karen noted that the results were okay. With the feedback came the realisation that she did not like doing art that had meaning.
“I just want to enjoy doing art and enjoying the process of making it,” she said.
“My paintings are influenced by my own imagination. I also take inspiration from my surroundings, pictures I’ve seen online, books, music and movies. I really like to infuse my paintings with really vibrant colours, and sometimes I will feature mythological elements”.
Given the heightened nature of her paintings and how each almost overwhelms the senses, Karen was asked whether she has ever painted while not sober.
“No, but I would really like to try,’’ she said. `` Actually a lot of people have commented that the type of art that I create is something people would see if they’re not sober.
