Former lounge singer draws inspiration from inner wellspring for paintings
By JAN HOGAN
VIEW STAFF WRITER
Left, artist Karen Wallo works on a painting. Below, Wallo?s piece, titled "Prehistoric Wetlands," hangs in her home.Photos by Louie Traub/View
Left, artist Karen Wallo works on a painting. Below, Wallo?s piece, titled "Prehistoric Wetlands," hangs in her home.Photos by Louie Traub/View
Louie Traub/ViewArtist Karen Wallo sits in her Summerlin home, where she paints in mixed media.
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Drooling tubes of paint lie waiting on her dining room window ledge. An easel occupies central space in the room.
After 20 years of putting painting on the back burner and singing full time, Karen Wallo of Summerlin began immersing herself in her life's passion, painting, eight years ago.
Art is in her blood. Wallo is the niece of Maurice Valo, famous Czechoslovakian artist of the 1930s.
Wallo, whose family Americanized the Valo name, paints in mixed media, and while she uses a variety of styles, said she likes doing impressionism and abstracts best.
Perhaps that's because she relies on her inner self to create images.
"I never use references when I paint," she said. "I don't go sit in a forest and draw. It's from my heart. It's already in me."
It's so in her that she "zones out" when she's at her easel and lets the creativity flow, she said. Afterwards, elements such as birds and dolphins can be detected in her abstracts. Her creations can take hours or months to complete.
"I know when it's done," she said. "It's like it speaks to me."
Wallo studied fine arts and music at Montclair University in New Jersey and graduated in 1981, magna cum laude.
Still, the credit for her ability to paint goes elsewhere, she said.
"I give all glory for my creative gifts to God, our heavenly father," she said. "I hope my work brings beauty and inspiration to the world."
Her art is already in private collections around Europe, in Canada and across the United States, she said.
A Swedish musician, Thomas Rydell, used one of her paintings for the cover of his CD, Wallo said. She said that at one point, she combined her talents with Fernando Molinari, well known artist from Buenos Aires, to paint nine pieces in tandem.
Joe Palermo, an artist who owns Gallery P in Holsum Lofts, 231 W. Charleston Blvd., said he has watched Wallo begin to emerge as an artist of note.
"It's always a struggle for an artist to make it," he said. "The competition is stiff and the key is to find your own niche and get galleries to exhibit your work."
He said Wallo has talent and it's obvious her work comes from the heart.
Artist Janet Gwendolyn Smith promotes Wallo on her own site, www.jgsart.com, as one of the field's up-and-coming stars.
"Her work is very sensual in an interesting way," Smith said. "She does everything to music and you can see the music in the strokes of her brush."
Wallo already had a successful 20-year career in the music business. It was that talent that brought her to Las Vegas 13 years ago. She sang in lounges at a variety of Strip hotels.
Before that, she performed all over the United States and recorded a CD in Nashville under the name Karen Green. For three years, she toured with the Boxtops, a group best known for the song "The Letter."
"I wasn't one of the original members," she said. "I'm not that old, thank goodness."
She now supports herself through her art, as well as teaching voice. But if things go as planned, her paintings soon will be her full-time work, she said.
Wallo said she has a gut feeling 2008 will be her year. Her work can be viewed on her Web site at www.karenwallo.com.
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