Karen Gines began her professional art career in California after two decades of study at five different Universities. Although she attended University she calls herself a “Grass Roots” artist. Throughout the seventies and eighties Gines participated in the street show circuit along the Northern California coast. Her work was represented by galleries in San Francisco, San Jose, Saratoga and Vallejo California. She has also been represented by galleries in Utah, Washington, and Illinois.

Gines relocated to Rockford Illinois in 1993 where she opened a commercial gallery space offering wall murals, hand painted ceramic tile and painted furniture, as well as her fine art paintings. Notable projects during this ten year period included: A store facade at Cherry Vale Mall for Lokah, Indian imports, featured on the CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. national brochure, painted whales embedded in Corian for the shower in an upscale Rockford home, numerous large murals in Rockford and Chicago homes, Rockford’s Showcase Mansions, and Sunco’s Showrooms. In 2007 Karen’s painting were given as the awards for the Mayor’s Art Awards.

In 2004 Karen retired from working on ladders painting decorative art, to painting fine art only. She presently shows her work at Bennies Cleaners loft during Spring Scene and Fall Scene in downtown Rockford and at Womanspace shows throughout the year. She is on the faculty of Womanspace where she teaches acrylic painting. You may email to see her latest work by appointment.