The following biography is from the artist's web site, www.kvanceart.com/Events.htm. Karl Drobnic alerted AskART.com to the information:

Karen Vance hails from a family rich in art. She was born into the sixth generation of fine artists. As a child, in her suburban Chicago home, Sunday afternoons were reserved as "family time." Of her family, Vance said: "My father, David Swartwout, an accomplished painter and sculptor, would give my sisters and me art lessons how to draw a tree in our backyard or draw boats in the water at Belmont Harbor. Or on a rainy Sunday, we would often spend an afternoon at the Art Institute learning from The Masters. In our modest home, art was paramount. We had only original art hanging on our walls; I grew ...