Dee Dannewitz Wallace KG4VMI came to Virginia from a southeastern Nebraska farming community. She spent her early years being mentored in business, and obtained sponsorship for much traveling in education, for 4-H, and mission trips with the church & others. She received great education at LIFE Bible College and Virginia Tech, and has background in finance, accounting, sales and management. She has always enjoyed spending time outdoors and working with various community groups. After college, Dee moved to Floyd with her son, Christian, to get back to “farm living” and for a closer association with David and Gaynell and LCF Group activities.In 2007, Dee married her long-time friend, Greg Wallace, who is a native of Floyd County, Virginia. They have their home at “Oak Hill Farm” in Floyd, where they spend free time watching the wildlife and grass grow, and sharpen their artistic and culinary skills. Greg photographs many of the historical buildings and breathtaking sceneries throughout the County.
A book compiled by Deborah Carrino, with and Introduction by Marilyn Green
Published by Prometheus Books,
Deborah Carrino, Karen's sister, is an artist who resides in Floyd, Virginia located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
A book compiled by Deborah Carrino, with and Introduction by Marilyn Green
Published by Prometheus Books,
Deborah Carrino, Karen's sister, is an artist who resides in Floyd, Virginia located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Karen Carrino’s ink and pencil drawings, oil and watercolor paintings, and clay sculptures of children reveal a depth of feeling and a level of craft that are remarkable in such a young artist. Her tragic death in a 1972 car accident, just a few days after her nineteenth birthday, is all the more poignant in view of the artistic legacy she left behind. With this collection of 124 works on the subject of young children, Deborah Carrino celebrates her sister’s great talent and shares Karen’s love for the special inner qualities of children which are revealed in skillfully rendered figures, extraordinary attention to detail, and an ability to capture the elusive and intertwined emotions of her subjects.
Much of Karen’s work was sold by her grief-stricken father at an art show shortly after her death. In 1990, Deborah, a survivor of the hit-and-run crash that killed Karen; her eight year old brother, Michael; and three-year-old Lisa Boudrie, launched a search for Karen’s work, eventually locating nearly three hundred pieces.
Karen saw children as lively and truthful, natural and unhidden, in a way that adults often aren’t. For Karen, there was no separation between her art and her life. She had passionate beliefs about child rearing and childhood education. She hoped to one day teach young children. “I want to free children,” she told a reporter at an art show held during her senior school in high school.
In all of her work there is no distracting background, nothing to stand between the viewer and the child. Karen’s work gives us the chance to attend to the child as seriously and respectfully as she did. Her own quiet strength is apparent in the clear focus and straightforwardness of her work.
Karen’s work has been the subject of three exhibitions that have generated local and international media attention from the CNN, the CBS Evening News, the New York Times, and the Associated Press.
Deborah Carrino points out some Karen's artwork to an interested visitor at the reception of "The Art and Life of Karen Carrino" which was held January 9, 2010 at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd, Virginia.
Deborah Carrino, an artist in her own right, has had her work shown alongside Karen’s at the Paterson Museum in Paterson, New Jersey. She continues to search for more of what remains of Karen’s art. She looks forward to memorializing Karen’s commitment to the education of children by contributing a portion of the proceeds of this book to organizations dedicated to improving the lives of children.
Marilyn Green is a freelance writer and a teacher in the English departments of New York University and Hunter College.
The book can be bought at Barnes & Noble and Borders if in stock. Or it can be ordered through www.amazon.com.
176pp/124 illustrations/HC/$32.00/ ISBN 1-57392-811-9 (10 digit) ISBN 978-1-57392-811-9 (13 digit)
Click here to see the video Art and Life of Karen Carrino by Deborah Carrino, Floyd Virginia.wmv :
http://tinyurl.com/ygl6ob7
You can see more videos by the LCF Group at: www.lcfvideo.com