Karlena Fletcher

Karlena Fletcher (she/her) (b. 1999, Little Rock, AR) is a painter and woodworker living and working in Fayetteville, AR as she pursues her MFA in Painting from the University of Arkansas. Karlena received her BFA in Painting from Boston University in 2021. Karlena has a passion for improving accessibility in the visual arts and building connections with other disabled artists as she embraces her identity as a chronically ill and neurodivergent maker. Evolving from a background in observational image-making, Karlena meticulously renders compositions that marry perception with imagination as she explores the visual elements of her past and present that imprint on her memory.

Artist Statement

My invented painting compositions feature visual motifs from my past and present surroundings that weigh on my mind and leave imprints on my psyche. I ruminate on these imprints for months or years as I seek to understand my present position in a timeline of visual histories. By zealously recollecting mental images, sketching from life, and hunting through archives, I transform otherwise mundane subjects—a tea tin, a window frame, a chair—into precious vessels in which to house memories and latent meanings. The resulting auto-anthropological abstractions demonstrate and embrace my tendency toward repetitive behaviors. For example, I explore the many facets of a single motif by reusing it in multiple paintings, and my compositions rely heavily on repetitive mark or motion. Noticing recurring moments and visual patterns from life stems from habits of keen observation and introspection. Later, the meticulous act of rendering those patterns in paint induces a centering and meditative state that further enhances my intimacy with the subject matter. Thus, repeating thoughts and repeating strokes have become inextricably linked.