Karen is fascinated by botanical forms, ruins, sacred places, and secret doorways. She enjoys working in a range of scales from large wall panels to jewelry, and in materials from aluminum to sterling silver. Karen studied architecture at Yale and is largely self-taught metalworker.
She lives in an Arts and Crafts Bungalow in Springfield VT with her sweetheart, their cat, and lots of books. She is searching for a place to build her tree house.
The garden wall series is inspired by the Moorish-influenced architecture and
design of southern Spain, French and English Formal garden design and Victorian ornamentation and pattern.
Karen graduated from Yale University in 1979 with a major in Architecture. She has been a high school art teacher and a business manager for Josh Simpson Contemporary Glass in Shelburne Falls, MA. Her master’s thesis was on the economic impact of craft in western Mass.
Karen Krieger’s and David Montgomery’s (David is a museum and special exhibit fabricator) reasons for settling in Springfield, Vermont, and setting up a studio on Main Street are refreshing and exciting for both artists, as well as for the Springfield community. “Most recently I was in the Berkshires which was wonderful and beautiful but very expensive to live. David and I decided we needed to move and find a place for both a studio and a home. We looked up and down the eastern seaboard, from Maryland to Maine. We wanted to be in a small town and we had two requirements: An affordable home and studio, and since we often work alone (with the help of very valuable assistants) we needed a place that had a good restaurant for lunch and a place for social contact."
"We came to Springfield to look at a home knowing nothing about the town or the people in it. We saw the house, we went to Morning Star Café for lunch, (delighted that there were actually several choices for dining in town), ate lunch, admired the Gallery at the VAULT, and made an offer on the house. It was accepted so the next thing we needed was a studio. We bought the Family Center building. We love the location at the foot of town, and we get to see all the traffic go by and watch the river and we have been slowly fixing up the building to suit our needs. We were also pleased that our purchase enabled the Family Center to move into their new space and begin a new phase in their own development.
An added bonus for us (which we thought would be too much to hope for) is the presence of the Ellis Theater. We originally had a movie theater, that we could walk to, on our list of requirements but had removed it. When we came to Springfield and saw it we were completely delighted.”
