Spell-Binding New Mural Now On Display

Spooky season has arrived and we’re getting in the spirit with our new outdoor mural in the West District at UTC.  For the month of October, we partnered with Sarasota-based artist Karen Chandler to bring her wickedly awesome talent to our ever-changing public art space.

After many years of traditional training in oil painting, photography, design, and computer studies (interspersed with bartending and a variety of other day jobs!), Karen began doing illustration work for all of the major publishing houses, including Random House, Simon & Schuster, Ballantine Books and Bantam Books. Her work has appeared on the covers for several Agatha Christie series, the R.L. Stine Goosebumps young adult series and the Victoria Thompson Murder Mystery series, among many others.

At the age of 28, Karen was selected to participate in the NASA and United States Air Force Art Programs. Her original oils for them hang in the Deputy Director’s office at the Kennedy Space Center, the Pentagon and the National Aviation Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

Karen’s local mural work includes Sarasota Heroes, a 20’x24′ piece commissioned in 2020 by a joint venture of Sarasota Magazine and the Art and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County to honor Sarasota County’s health care workers on the front lines of the Covid battle. This year, she was recognized as a Fellow of The Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood.

We’re beyond excited to showcase Karen’s talent at UTC. Stop by her magical art piece before it disappears between Blaze Pizza and JPAN Sushi & Grill and show us your boo-tiful pics using #utcsarasota.