Kari Lennartson earned her Master of Fine Arts in Painting at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.  She completed her BA in Studio Arts from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, where she also majored in Scandinavian Studies.  Lennartson has traveled extensively in Scandinavia and has studied Swedish Art History at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. In her artwork, Lennartson incorporates acrylic paints and mediums, various drawing materials, and collage elements.  Her highly abstracted paintings explore themes related to sense of place.  Surface texture and line play a significant role in guiding the artist’s process of intuiting the whimsical interplay of shape and pattern. Lennartson’s artistic influences include Folk Art, paintings by Joan Snyder and Diane Whitehouse, and sculpture by  Petah Coyne.  Lennartson currently teaches painting at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado.