THE ORIGIN STORY

Two well known anonymous street artist came together after having a bad encounter with a Karen. The artists pondered how a person could turn so delusional, disruptive, and disrespectful. This lead the artists to interview a “real life Karen” - who also paints.

Due to fear Karen will be targeted over her provocative imagery, despite her wishes to be unveiled. as a team, we have decided to change her last name.

This is Karen’s story

Karen McAllister, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Karens,” is a street artist from Seattle who has built her career—and her notoriety—on creating provocative, hilarious, and self-deprecating works of art that explore the social phenomenon of “Karen culture.” Her canvases are filled with sharp humor and a brutal honesty about her own life, which she says is “a parody of itself.”

Karen’s artistic journey began in the parking lot of a suburban Costco, where she got into a heated argument with a manager over a missing free sample. The moment was caught on video and went viral, labeling her a “classic Karen.” Instead of retreating into obscurity, she leaned into it.

“I figured, if the world’s going to call me a Karen, I might as well make it art,” she says.

Karen began spray-painting her first works in alleyways and on the walls of coffee shops in Seattle. Her debut piece, “Get Off My Lawn,” features a caricature of herself holding a bat as she rides a scooter. It became an instant local sensation, with people calling her “the Banksy of passive-aggression.”

Karen’s art exclusively focuses on “Karens” in their glory and infamy. Karen’s life is as chaotic as her art. She claims to have accidentally started a kombucha pyramid scheme in 2016 and still gets hate mail from people who didn’t get their starter kits. She also once petitioned to have the word “Karen” banned from Twitter, only to discover that the petition itself was already trending.

Despite being a walking meme, Karen insists she’s “just a middle-aged mom with a can of spray paint and some regrets.” She drives a minivan that doubles as her mobile art studio and says her favorite artistic medium is “a mix of acrylic paint, guilt, and red wine.”

Karen doesn’t see herself as a hero—or even as a particularly good artist. “I’m just here to remind everyone, including myself, that life’s too short to take yourself so seriously. Especially if you’re a Karen.”