From an early age, Karen discovered that she loved making things with her hands. Drawing, painting, sculpting, playing with forms and experimenting with color, she explored a variety of mediums from the time she was able to hold a paintbrush through college. Choosing a career in the Arts, Karen began her formal art education in 1984 at the University of Massachusetts. She spent her time there studying Art and Theater Arts. Taking classes in drawing and painting, acting, set design, lighting and costume design.
Though she enjoyed her classes at UMASS, the winters in Amherst were just too cold. So in 1986, Karen decided to transfer to the University of California, in Santa Cruz. Upon moving to the west coast, she shifted her focus to the art of film making and in 1988 she earned a BA degree in Film and Video Production. After graduation, she spent the next few years working in the Bay Area in the industry, until she met the glassblowers at San Jose State University.
Karen had worked in a variety of art forms, but she had no prior experience working with hot glass. It wasn’t until she attended an open studio event at the glass department at San Jose State, that she was bitten by the glass bug. This demonstration of the process was a turning point in her art interests. In the hot shop, stood Dana Robbins, a graduate student and Teaching Assistant in the glass program. He was demonstrating the art of glass blowing with his classmates at the hot shop on campus. Karen was very intrigued by Dana and his talents. Before she knew it, she was capturing the glass students on video, working with hot molten glass. As her passion for glassblowing increased, so did her opportunities to work closely with glass. The instructor of the class, Mary White who was co-coordinator of the Glass Art Society conference, asked Karen to videotape all the demonstrations at the annual event in June of 1994.
After watching the process for many hours at SJSJ, her exposure to this art form was continually building until finally Karen decided she wanted to try to blow glass. In the summer of 1995, Karen had an opportunity to attend the Pilchuck Glass School. It was here, for the first time, where she picked up a blowpipe and tried to work with hot glass. Her six week adventure at Pilchuck was so influential, it motivated a career change from producing videos to creating blown glass art. After attending Pilchuck, Karen and Dana were married and began the start of a lifelong partnership. Her trip to Pilchuck also inspired a life changing decision to move with Dana to New Mexico and build a hot shop of their own on Dana’s family cattle ranch in Stanley.
It’s been 30 years since they moved from California to New Mexico. After all this time, working together with hot glass, Dana and Karen are the best blowing partners. She does the majority of the design, shape and color selection, and assists Dana in creating the glass. He is responsible for the skilled execution of each piece, and does all labor intensive polishing and finish work. In addition to working in the hot shop, Karen takes care of all the marketing, customer service, inventory control and business management. In return, Dana handles of all the technical needs of their shop, keeping the equipment running properly. Lots of hard work and a team effort have made their marriage and their business a very successful partnership.