Sarah B. Smith Gallery
Karen Eide: The Space Between Sound
May 2- June 1

In The Space Between Sound, Karen explores the boundaries between the recognizable and the abstract, merging the real, imagined, dreamed, and remembered. Drawing inspiration from Claude Debussy’s idea that “music is the space between the notes,” the artist reflects on silence as a metaphor — a place of pause and stillness amid chaos, where mystery and meaning emerge.

Nature is a recurring thread throughout the work. Personal iconography of flora and fauna is placed within liminal, often abstracted spaces that evoke quiet contemplation. These visual meditations are influenced by the artist’s daily life on a farm and a personal meditation practice — both grounding forces that reveal life’s fragility, beauty, and interconnectedness.

Process-driven and intuitive, the work unfolds through layered mark-making and mixed media, including oil and cold wax, encaustic, acrylics, graphite, pastels, and collage. Each surface holds both intention and surrender, inviting viewers into a visual language that feels familiar yet mysterious — a poetic space between sound.