I am local artist based in the Wirral; I have completed my degree in fine art in Chester university as of 2022. I hosted my first art exhibition in 2018 prior to my degree, located in Bebington Victoria Hall collaborating with another local artist. The exhibition consists of a surrealist exhibition on my life’s experiences of being a mother. In 2020 I was a part of an online exhibition as a part of my degree, during covid. The exhibition focused and explored the idea of the abstract emotions using colours and sounds from my real-life experience such as traumatic experience living with a terminally sick child. Using the sound of a doorbell which is used as an alarm during emergencies and is placed next to my bed. This is because my eldest son is a terminally ill child on life support and can require emergency interventions at a moments notice. The sounds of doorbells for me cause minor panic attacks and the point of this exhibition was to translate this to the audience.

2022 is my most recent art exhibition that was held in the Williamson art gallery, this exhibition subject matter focused more on refined large scale paintings of the objects themselves that keep my son alive, and have saved his life many times such as bagging equipment, nebulizer and a tracheostomy. These large scale oil paintings have a simple bold colour background to allow the objects themselves to stand out and draw in the viewer to cause curiosity of what these objects are and hopefully raise awareness to various conditions that can lead to their necessity.  

Art Exhibition 2022 Williamson Art Gallery

My current artwork consists of a mixture of life drawing with a surrealist twist also taking inspiration from Art Nouveau and arts and craft movement of the late 1800s to early 1900s. I have also been using anatomy of the human body and scar tissue to show the stresses of life reflected in the individuals in the pieces and raising awareness around mental health and it effects both physical and emotional.

I also have a range of nature inspired pieces for the lighter more feel good factor, involving wildlife such as plants and animals and moving into the more fantasy side with fairies and mushroom people. Primarily my works medium is pencil and digital, but I can also work in acrylic, oil and water colour as well.

Towards the end of 2023 I have had a children’s book published under the name Kara Price called Leo and the floppy Sloth. The book was illustrated by myself and written by me, this book tells the story of a day in the life of Leo and raises awareness for children like him, who are living with infantile Pompe disease or similar conditions and require a ventilator to breathe. There is no cure for this disease and the life span of these children is limited. As a mother I wanted to show a more positive side to living with someone who is on life support and as a family how we can still stay positive and do normal family actives despite the limits of his condition. This book also shows in a child friendly way what a tracheostomy change actual looks like and what it takes to do one, it simplifies and hopefully helps normalizes this for the families like ours who are just learning to live with conditions like this. I personally receive no proceeds from this book as it has been donated to the pompe network to raise money for research into this condition. Below is the link to the book which is currently available to buy directly from the pompe network. 

https://pompe.uk/publications-library/leo-and-the-floppy-sloth

As an artist I’ve been deeply inspired by the challenges that myself, Leo and the family have had to face on a regular basis including many traumatic moments and near-death experiences. Art has become both an escape from and therapy to deal with these experiences. I have also taken inspiration from my own experiences of betrayal from Leo’s biological father and my husband’s stepping up and his experiences as a victim of domestic abuse. But even though our journeys appear dark there is a lot of good in our lives and we have been building a better world together and this is also shown in parts of my work.