About

Karen Carter is an academic, designer and illustrator who began her career as a commercial artist in publishing. She has worked in advertising, design and communications, spending much of her career in the university sector, lecturing in design, advertising and communications at James Cook University, Sunshine Coast University in Queensland and RMIT University in Melbourne, Victoria. 

Karen has shifted her focus towards working more on ethical causes and drawing the natural world. Combining her creative and academic knowledge, Karen has contributed to educational and communication campaigns for social awareness, conservation, and sustainability.  While her artistic skills are represented mainly in botanical illustration now. She has taught botanical illustration in association with the Botanical Arts Society of the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane Botanical Gardens in Queensland. 

A Master’s degree in Internet/Media studies and is currently undertaking a PhD in Environmental Communications; Topic – Re-framing Botanical Art for the Design of Environmental Communications. 

The research can be found at EfflorescenceProject.com 

Karen’s love for nature and the compulsion to aid in building community awareness of environmental issues led to this recent publication, The Ant, the Plant and the Caterpillar, a picture book for children. “The story was born out of a need to address an environmental communication gap whilst my daughter was at preschool. It aims to build stewardship towards the natural world by teaching all children about a unique symbiotic relationship in nature and the importance of preserving biodiversity for our future.”  

One of my favourite Greek proverbs is:

“A society grows great when old men plant trees, whose shade they know they will never sit in.”