Karen Gruber is an Artist and Illustrator
from the Blue Mountains, Australia.
Welcome to Karen Gruber Art!
I am a self taught Artist and Illustrator specialising in watercolour and graphite but I will create with whatever I can get my hands on. This is a space where I share my process and work as well as my personal experiences because it is those experiences that inspire my art.
I have a Ragdoll cat who I adore, two chickens who are my babies, a small vege garden which I am exploring growing edible native plants in, and a smart and bubbly nephew-dog (he is my brother’s dog who I live with). I love exploring ways to live in tune with the world around me and finding flow. I have Diplomas in graphic design and psychotherapy, which surprisingly go hand in hand. I love to listen to my client’s visions for their artworks and work closely with them to bring that vision into reality.
I also live with a personality disorder, which I do talk about from time to time though not exclusively. I am a huge fan of therapy, personal reflection and inner growth.
My freelance Art and Illustration journey began in 2017 with a few drawings I posted on Instagram which lead to requests for prints. Fast forward to October 2019 (past all the tears, struggle, uncertainty and sharp learning curves) when I had the amazing experience of my first solo exhibit at Platform Gallery in Katoomba. Since then I have been working behind the scenes with commissioned artworks, tattoo designs, children’s readers illustrations and logo and branding projects.
I started this journey as ‘Whipit’, which was a project for personal growth and building my confidence as a creative. Now here I am, putting my name to my work and living a life I never thought was possible. As with all my business transitions, I like to include previous ‘about’ information to show how my work has developed. Where I am has not landed on my lap and the journey I have taken is interwoven with my art. Below you will see the ‘about’ section from Whipit, which also shares my first website.
Thank you for joining me on this journey!
Karen xxx
Original Whipit ‘About’ page…
I am so proud of what Whipit has become.
The name ‘Whipit’ was built from the common artist acronym ‘wip’, meaning ‘work in progress’. The process of Whipit becoming what it is today was gradual and meaningful, and it continues to be just that. This project and space is not a place of completed and marketed artworks by an established artist, it is a work in progress because I am a work in progress. It is a space where I explore my creativity for what it is and share openly all which that the process entails, the good, the bad and the ugly. I hope to be able to show all aspiring creatives that the end result is not what makes art. Art and creativity is the process of finding and sharing yourself through owning your strengths and being open to your vulnerability.
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History of the Whipit project
I launched Whipit in January 2015 following a major life event and amidst the onset of a mental breakdown, which lead to the diagnosis of a personality disorder. I started a blog with the plan of writing my way through my inner experience in a philosophical style, with a few of my scribbles thrown in so that I could feel like I was being authentic. While I enjoyed writing, I had never identified myself as a writer. On the other hand, I had always hoped to one day be an artist and the thought of leaving my art vulnerable to judgement was intimidating to the point that I barely drew or painted anymore. Presenting writing as the medium, rather than drawing or painting, was an emotionally safer option.
As the months and years went on, I began to come out of the haze. The down periods become shorter and slowly became further apart with the support of family and friends as I worked through and completed DBT (a therapy program which I will advocate for often. Read more here). I started challenging my comfort zones and slowly became more confident in myself and my ability. My creativity and my art started to take shape and purpose, and Whipit started to reflect that. I wrote less and painted more. The art I started creating found its style and I found a rhythm.
Now Whipit is taking on its next phase of making my creativity public and sharing it more purposefully. I am investing my time and money into my art, a privilege I thought was only for the ‘real’ artists out there. I never dreamt it would be for the likes of me. And while my sense of vulnerability is vivid and confronting, I am excited to feel that I am brave enough to try, regardless of outcome.
At the start, I thought I had to prove something with fierce and unrelenting independence in order to make it my own. Now I see that nothing of true worth happens in isolation. Originally, sharing my process was a hunt for validation. After all I have learnt, I have realised that sharing my process is part of my process.
For the purpose of the journey, I am keeping my original Whipit website open, which includes access to all of my original blogs, musings and even some horrible youtube attempts. I am a work in progress, so there is no point in hiding the process. Whether you enjoy or cringe, I hope you can take something from my journey so far.
Whip it good!
Karen x