Karen Melgar is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and all around silly person based in Los Angeles. She made her first short film, a 20 minute experimental documentary film entitled Coffee Tales, in 2016. The film showcased two coffee shops in East London, with the baristas telling their stories as the film shows off the adorable interiors of the shops and charming locations of East London’s Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The official film is accompanied by a 5000 word essay about London, film, and Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality, written by Karen for her Master’s dissertation. It is not required reading to view the film but Karen wanted you to know it exists. Coffee Tales premiered in Cork, Ireland as part of a film festival in 2017.

Recently, Karen has focused heavily on painting in watercolor, gouache, and line drawing. She is self-taught and has never taken any classes but loves to learn from more established artists who take her under their wing. Karen sees art as an expression of the human condition, that is, the range of emotions that are available in color and in symbols as they express the suffering, the joys, the losses, and the loves that come with being human. She believes that visual art and storytelling can and should work in tandem to express these very ideas, so she tries to connect her art to life.

Her Etsy shop launches in January 2019 and will have limited quantity prints and originals available for purchase. Links will be provided.

Karen has her Bachelor’s Degree in Literary Journalism from the University of California Irvine and her Master’s Degree in Film Studies from Queen Mary University of London. She lived in London for one year and two months, from 2015 to 2016. It was the best time of her life. She has a day job and is always in search of ways to move back to London or to immigrate to Dublin. Karen’s ambitions lie in writing more and painting more.