Not only is Karen Hudson a singer-songwriter, she's also a visual artist and a grant recipient from the Uptown Arts Stroll sponsors, the Northern Manhattan Art Alliance <http://www.nomaa.org. The year 2010 saw the premier of her one-woman show, "Compartments-Shedding Light on Dark Places." Karen combined music, storytelling and mixed media dioramas to express her journey, and self-exploration. At The Cornerstone Center in NYC and at Catskill Art Society in Livingston Manor, NY, she performed the songs, surrounded by the boxes, opening and illuminating each one as she told the story behind it, and the origin of the fear derived from them.

Press Release:
Fears—we all have them, we just don't like to talk about them. It has been said that men are experts at "compartmentalizing" their feelings—a coping mechanism that keeps their pain and fear separate from other aspects of their lives and enables them to carry on with their daily lives. Women, on the other hand, examine, dissect, explore and talk things out rather than ignore their feelings. The two, men and women, can learn from each other.

"Each box aims to exorcise my inner demons. With this series, I have given each individual fear a visual context, illuminated them, and will pay homage to them with song. Fears such as being unlovable, losing identity, and abandonment are examined in both art and music, and provoke the audience to examine their own fears, based on our own common ground."