Karen Kunc was born in 1952 in Omaha, Nebraska. She received a BFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MFA from Ohio State University. Kunc has taught workshops around the world including in Mexico, France, Poland, Finland, and Bangladesh and is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she taught from 1983 to 2020. She has lectured as a visiting artist to over 200 institutions and is the owner of Constellation Studios, a creative worksite for artist residences, collaborations, and workshops. Kunc is known for her colorful woodcuts that reference and abstract elements of the natural world manipulated by the humans who live with and against their environments. She is interested in both the evolution and destruction of the organic and uses her printmaking processes to mirror our impact on the earth. Her work has been shown internationally and awarded by many institutions.