Karlyn Atkinson Berg

Karlyn graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, continued graduate studies at Pratt University in printmaking, and worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Karlyn traveled from New York City to Minnesota to work for the conservation of the Timber Wolf.  She became internationally recognized for her work and expertise on wolves, canids, predators, and environmental issues, but continued her work as an artist. Karlyn served as a consultant and designer for the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) to help create the acclaimed “Wolves and Humans” Exhibit and created the Wolves and Humans Educational Workbook and the Humanities presentations. 

Artist Statement

I retired from wildlife work to concentrate on painting but the connection between, humans, animals, and wilderness continues to be important to me and are dominant themes included in my visual art. I do not attempt to depict nature’s reality but instead create abstract visual landscapes using shapes, colors, forms, and images. I try to discover and express visually the creative inspirational power of the natural world that cannot be portrayed by words alone. 

The series Nature Re-envisioned and Reality Transformed was inspired by literary magic realism and nature. Each painting addressed a related motif. Next, I ventured to intensify the Nature series by creating 8 panels that became a single 16-foot landscape painting. I named this collection Unconventional Journey because as each panel came to life this endeavor advanced my journey to create a metaphorical landscape.

I approach the collage medium as a painting not as a mere assembly of images. As I collect materials, I see visual connections. As I arrange the materials, I see the interaction in space and form; colors and shapes intensify. Each added element builds on the previous one or even results in eliminating components. What you remove is as important as what you put into the composition. And each painting motivates you to investigate alternative ways to choreograph shapes, colors, and images.

Collage is an associative, nonlinear mode of creating. It can tell a story by incorporating shapes and images without being bound by the need to make an illustration.

I have been fortunate to have received Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Council grants to continue working on these collage series, create and publish a Collage workbook set, and learn video production to continue to produce a Collage Video series.