Karen Gines grew up in rural Utah near the Whiterocks Indian Reservation where her father was a teacher in the Indian Schools, before they were integrated. This high desert country, while uncluttered and even barren in landscape was a treasure of experiences for Karen's imaginative mind when she was young. There are times you can identify the Native American influence in Gines' art. She has had periods of expression when the theme of nature spirits and the use of symbols were a strong indication of her roots.

A wind of universality blows across all of Gines' work. She claims to be as much the 'observer', as those of us who have watched her art develop. Expect the unexpected, is a theme that lives at the edge of each new canvas.

One of Karen's favorite quotations is from Pablo Picasso, ''Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic.'' So goes Gines' relationship to her own art.

As a young adult Gines attended five different colleges and Universities where she studied art. She refers to her sojourn into academia as a gathering of self-confidence and technical information. She emerged, without a degree because she had taken only classes that were of interest to her. Gines believes all art is 'self taught' and that education is a tool for directing the artist into productive channels. She labels her formal education as, ''spotted'', a bit mongrel in blood line, but none the less, helpful.

In 1976 Gines moved to Northern California near the San Francisco Bay. She did street shows for several years, participated in a coop gallery and taught children's art at a Montessori Academy and worked as a graphic artist. She has been represented by art galleries in California, Washington, Utah and Illinois. Gines has numerous one woman shows to her credit and she has sold her art internationally.

In 1994 Gines moved to Rockford Illinois. At that time she opened a studio/gallery space to showcase her art and added mural painting to her already eclectic menu of artistic skills.

Gines talks about a mural that connected her to the angels. ''I started laying the paint on the wall, the way I had worked it out in my mind ahead of time. Murals are a different kind of painting because you are too close to see them while you are working. When I stood back to assess my progress, alarm was my first response. It was not looking like the mural I had painted in my mind. For some reason, without thinking, I silently called my guardian angels for assistance. I had always summoned my angels for assistance with life problems, but this was the first time I had called them to help with a painting. I climbed back up on the ladder and went back to work. For the first time, I became fully conscious of the guidance I was receiving from my angels. After that day my awareness of the presence blossomed and with a little experimentation I discovered my ability to paint for other people.