Latest Work - Karen Rose

Volcano, 2026 oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 48 x 64" diptych San Vicente volcano in El Salvador is the site of the notorious CECOT detention center where we have deported hundreds of young men. Erased the prison and inverted the colors of the sky and land since we are living in the upside down world.

American Avenue, 2025 oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 32 x 48" American Avenue is the road that leads to Del Rey in the great San Joaquin Valley flanked by almond and orange groves where my grandfather worked for decades.

Del Rey Tumbleweeds, 2025 acrylic on muslin 32 x 40" Driving to visit my grandparents in the San Joaquin Valley in the winter, the orchard and vineyard roads were lined with tumbleweeds.

Del Rey Grapevines, 2025 oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 32 x 48" Part of my San Joaquin farm series honoring Latino farmworkers. My Mexican grandparents worked nearby for most of their lives. My grandmother tied 2000 grapevines each summer.These are grapes for raisins not wine. As I recall there was a Sun Maid packing factory behind their house in Del Rey.

Sneak peak at one of a pair of small 16x20" Wilson Farm paintings I made for my upcoming show @theedgewilsongallery in honor of the Latino farm workers in this community. Show rescheduled for June.

Wilson Farm/Roadside, 2026 watercolor 18 x 24" For my show in June in Wilson, NC honoring the Latino farm working community.

Wilson Farm/Sign of the Times, 2026 watercolor 18 x 24"

Wilson Farm/Dumpster, 2026 watercolor 18 x 24" For my show in June in Wilson, NC honoring the Latino farm working community.

Angel Island, 2025 oil, acrylic, pastel on canvas 36 x 48" View from my studio window, painted without the former immigration center, now a museum. "While the exact number is unknown, estimates suggest that between 1910 and 1940, the station processed up to one million Asian and other immigrants, including 250,000 Chinese and 150,000 Japanese ...Thousands of immigrants detained on Angel Island endured the station's prison-like environment." - NPS website. Also served as a Japanese internment camp during WWII. Painted with the color palette of the American flag, striped water, and stars layered under the fog.

Democracy is a Burro from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Mexican Blanket color palette oil on canvas 36 x 48" 2025

Rio Grande Border Fence, 2025 Mexican Border Series oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 36 x 48" Inspired by a border photo near Ciudad Juarez posted in the New York Times noting that the president is happy with the decline in border crossings. This painting is dedicated to the people in fear of ICE in Los Angeles, Texas and elsewhere. The flower and color palettes are from huipil designs by indigenous Oaxacan matriarchal people. Frida Kahlo wore and collected these textiles.

Alligator Alcatraz, 2025 oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 34 x 48" Google earth plant reference near this immigration detention center in the Everglades. "Thirty-two bodies crammed per cage, six cages per tent. People screaming 'Help me, I'm a U.S. citizen.' Drinking water pumped from the same toilet they're forced to use. It's filth, it's cruelty, it's America's name on the door." - Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost

Fort Bliss, 2025 oil, acrylic and pastel on canvas 20 x 24" Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX is now home to the largest immigration detention center in the country holding up to 5000 people. Photo references from Google Earth and the El Paso Times. Also a former Japanese internment camp.

NC Farmworkers 3, 2025 acrylic on canvas 48 x 48" Series honoring Latino farmworkers, based on my photos of farms in Wilson, North Carolina. The color palettes in this series are Mexican, and the labor force is thus implied, while notably absent.

NC Farmworkers 2/Portapotty 2025 acrylic on canvas 48 x 50" Series honoring Latino farmworkers, based on my photos of farms in Wilson, North Carolina. The color palettes in this series are Mexican, and the labor force is thus implied, while notably absent.

NC Farmworkers 1, 2025 acrylic on canvas 36 x 48" Series honoring Latino farmworkers, based on my photos of farms in Wilson, North Carolina. The color palettes in this series are Mexican, and the labor force is thus implied, while notably absent.

Prickly Pear and Yucca, 2025 oil, pastel, and acrylic on canvas 36 x 48" Varieties of these two plants are native to both North Carolina and Mexico, created especially for my show at the Durham Convention Center, "From Mexico to North Carolina."

Alcatraz, 2025 oil acrylic and pastel on canvas 36 x 48" Reimagined before it was a Civil War fortress, military prison, federal prison, bird sanctuary, the first lighthouse on the West Coast, occupied by Indians of all Tribes 1969-1971, now a National Historic Landmark and contemplated as a future immigration detention center. Behind it is Angel Island which was once host to a Japanese internment camp.

Escape from Alcatraz (Dia de los Muertos), 2025 acrylic and pastel on canvas 24 x 36" Color palette of my favorite graveyard in Mexico, here I imagined Alcatraz before it was a Civil War fortress, military prison, federal prison, bird sanctuary, the first lighthouse on the West Coast, occupied by Indians of all Tribes 1969-1971, now a National Historic Landmark and contemplated as a future immigration detention center.

Tomales Point, 2025 oil and acrylic on canvas 43 x 54" From my photograph, featuring the coastal native cobweb thistle on a 12 mile walk I took on a clear spring day, through shoulder high yellow lupine. In Point Reyes National Seashore, near the historic dairy and beef farms that have been shut down to save the tule elk, promote native plants, prevent toxic runoff into the ocean, unfortunately also displacing family ranchers and their mostly Latino workers.

Point Reyes, 2025 acrylic on muslin 36 x 36"

La Punta Tomales, 2026 acrylic and pastel on muslin 36 x 48"