Karen Reimer’s work is rooted equally in the traditions of domestic craft and conceptual art, using their disjunctions to consider the values and assumptions that underlie both. She received a BA from Bethel College, Kansas, near where she grew up, and an MFA from the University of Chicago, the city where she now resides. Reimer’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently at: LAXART, Los Angeles; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Beirut Art Center, Lebanon; and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, which represents her work.
First, and most importantly, how are you doing? How are you navigating the highs and lows?
First, thanks for inviting me to do this. In general, I’m doing really well. Most of the time I’m contented because the need to isolate lets me indulge my introversion without guilt. And it is a welcome break from busyness. But I realize that my ability to feel this way is not only my personality type, but also because I have the kind of job that allows me to work from home, and so I have not lost my income like so many other people. I know it's a privilege. I do periodically have bad days when I start reading news and commentary compulsively, and find myself coming up for air three hours later in a rage or depressed or anxious. I occasionally spend a day completely disconnected from the digital world to try to help with that.
