Karen Stewart was born in 1970 and studied Fine Arts at Wits University and Graphic Design at the Johannesburg Art Foundation in the late 80s. Stewart’s art making process is time consuming and precision orientated – she was trained as a graphic designer in a time when studios still produced most of their work by hand. The enduring theme of her work seems to be how people are affected by their circumstances and their environment, and how this impacts our quality of life and our health. Her work reflects on how the ebb and flow of life changes our state of mind and the fact that this can have deep, far-reaching, and irreversible effects on individuals and, more importantly, on the planet.