My name is Karen Stanton and I am a children’s book author/illustrator, teacher and artist who started out as an architect. I have a Master’s degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley where I studied under Christopher Alexander (A Pattern Language). A few years (and a few kids) later, I found that I was much happier applying the principles I had learned in my formal education to the design of smaller things that I could make myself, like paintings, illustrated books and art. No education is ever wasted.

I have three traditionally published children’s books, and I have taught visual design/art in public elementary school, City College San Francisco and ART in English for the American Embassy in Valencia Spain.

Right now my husband and I are remodeling an old apartment building in Valencia, Spain that was built in the year 1849.

My art is multimedia, but my favorote part of art making is collage. I have used a ruined book on the game GO I found on the street in Tokyo, old notebooks and journals from Paris and Spain, gorgeous scraps of silk from the gowns of Falleras in Valencia, Spain, a vintage (and water damaged) “Bobbsey Twins” book I found at a garage sale in Florida, newspapers from Marrakesh and 1945 Spain, a math book from Athens, Greece and of course paper I have come across in my hometown of Oakland, California.

I have work in shops and galleries around the San Francisco Bay Area where I live, but also in some far flung places like Phoenix, Arizona and Omena, Michigan.

 I make and teach art for the fun of it. Enjoy.

Connect with me on Bluesky @karenstantonart.bsky.social