About

Karen Bandy has been involved in art since her Portland, Oregon childhood. She drew a lot and strung love beads in the 60’s and aggravated her mother playing in the wax of burning candles, fashioning miniature sculptures. In high school she was drawn to jewelry making where she could play big-girl style with wax model carving and lost wax casting.

Karen graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Art Education but after three years of teaching art in a Eugene, Oregon public school she returned to Portland to start her career in jewelry design and manufacture. After working for others for almost four years, Karen and her husband moved to Bend, Oregon, where she opened her design studio and has grown a successful business earning many design awards, and designing for clients worldwide.

Karen’s most significant design award was a first place in the prestigious Spectrum Awards, given by the international American Gem Trade Association. Bandy’s winning ring design featured a blue chalcedony, pink tourmaline and diamonds in 18k yellow gold. Karen has become known for her blue chalcedony designs, and brought world-wide attention to this beautiful gem, spurring collections by Cartier and David Yurman. The stone has since become very rare.

Karen began painting almost 6 years ago. After painting in college to fulfill requirements, she picked up her brushes again and has since become passionate. She loves the versatility, the impermanence of paint. “It’s not precious until it is complete,” she said, “it can be changed, altered, painted over, and scrubbed away.”

Those characteristics has led to her newest style, incorporating layered paints, revealing underpainting, shapes and textures, resulting in an abstract painting communicating feelings and mood with the viewer. The use of brilliant color (drawn from her gemstone experience) continues to play an important part of her art.

Karen continues to design beautiful jewelry in addition to fueling her newfound passion of painting. She was recently juried into the Mirror Pond show with a painting called Stepping Stones, Downtown Bend, 2008.

Multiple one-person shows:

Karen Bandy Studio – ongoing

Bandy + Bird: a Collaboration  Oct. 2011

Design Lighting 2010-2011

Urban Minx 2010-2011

Joolz March 2009

In private collections in:

Bend  Eugene  Salem  Portland  Napa  Bay area   Boulder  North Carolina

Phoenix  Scottsdale  Alberta