Karen Boren Gerstenberger

Today, I cleared all of my artwork out of the Gallery at Savage Plants, which has been my artistic home since 2016.. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Jim and Joan Savage, have owned this gorgeous boutique nursery and landscaping business for decades, and it has been beautifully managed by their eldest daughter, Hollie. They recently made…

I have a message of gratitude for you on this Good Friday. Before I get to that, I want to share something about what is known in Christian circles as “standing at the foot of the cross.” Standing at the foot of the cross is something that I learned about in midlife. While I had…

I’ve just finished a new painting and it’s now hanging in the Gallery at Savage Plants. This was a fun painting to make and it “recharged my batteries” as I worked on it. I began by spraying water on the canvas, and then pooling fluid acrylics in warm colors all around, followed by cool colors…

I became a certified Forest Therapy Guide in 2020, an opportunity created by my job as Facilitator of the Strolls for Well-Being program at the Bloedel Reserve. The Association of Nature & Forest Therapy Guides and Programs created the practicum, which was set to last for six months, but was extended by the pandemic to…

I studied fine art in college in a “formal” way. It was art for art’s sake, which was a wonderful experience, but impractical (for me) as a way of living. There was no pathway to practice commercial art or interior design offered where I studied, and I was not one of the “stellar” students who…

What a year this has been! The Coronavirus has created changes in all of our lives, and for me, those changes included moving my job as facilitator of the Strolls for Well-Being online and helping to tailor the program to the new format. My colleagues at the Bloedel Reserve and I created a “Strolls at…

Gregg and I recently returned from a holiday in Montana. When we embarked on this trip, we were aware of the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, but it seemed far away from us and where we were going. This became a moving awareness from “it’s too far away to touch me/those I love” to…

For most of the past 12 years, we have traveled to the west coast of Vancouver Island in August to seek solace during the anniversary of our daughter Katie’s passing. We stay near the remote rain forest of Pacific Rim National Park. There is something pure and elemental about the place that soothes my soul…