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, one collabortive picture book done with artist Raul Jorcino and another picture book I am currently working on for publication in September 2027. 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 that was built in the year 1849. When it’s habitable again we hope you’ll come visit Spain. We love it there.

My art is multimedia, and my favorite part of art- making is collage. I have used a discarded book on the game GO found on the street in Tokyo, old notebooks and journals from Paris, Amsterdam and Spain, gorgeous scraps of silk from the gowns of Falleras in Valencia, a vintage (and water damaged) “Bobbsey Twins” book found at a garage sale in Florida, newspapers from Marrakesh, 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.