St. Ambrose is delighted to have Karen Edie as art teacher. Karen is a firm believer in hard work over talent. She often encourages her students to keep pushing themselves to develop the gifts they’ve been given. She also strives to truly understand her students and welcomes honest feedback throughout the year.

As a painter, Karen is passionate about portraying the saints in a way that allows them to be understood without detailed background information, drawing on the rich body of symbols in other examples of Christian art. Karen has a master’s in fine art specializing in painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and a bachelor’s in anthropology from the University of California Santa Cruz.

In her prior work experience, Karen designed and fabricated custom art treatments. She’s also taught cartooning and was responsible for designing the arts and crafts program at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. In her free time, she enjoys knitting, painting, sewing, as well as crafting with her young children. Her family has a long tradition of baking cakes, cookies, and pies for all occasions, and she is known for her homemade marshmallows. Inspired by The Great British Bake Off, she’s even been exploring savory bakes like meat pies and bread. Despite moving from California, Karen loves Wisconsin winters.