Painter Kara Maria embeds biodiversity’s plight in swirling, multi-hued explosions

To say the works of Kara Maria are colorful is an understatement. In fact, her artwork explodes in a collision of vibrant hues and cosmic energy. Thematically, her pieces embrace the biodiversity crisis with swirling abstraction that gives way to thoughtful environmental connections. “I draw inspiration from comic books, cosmology, the history of painting, and the natural world,” Maria told 48hills. Artist Kara Maria. Photo by Marc Vazquez Interested in the formal elements of painting, such as color interactions, contrast of lines, shapes, and textures, Maria’s paintings are abstract at first glance, yet realistically rendered elements are hidden within. In her painting Stardust (Ohlone Tiger Beetle) for example, one must penetrate the colorfully celestial dynamism to find that little critter, a melding that emphasizes not only the beetle s integrative nature, but its fragile existence. Maria grew up in Binghamton, New York, a small upstate city about an hour south of Syracu