Karen Deans was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where an early love of art and the richly textured images of the American South led to a life-long interest in painting. She received a degree in art history at the American University of Paris, where she studied painters such as Manet, Vuillard, Bonnard and Matisse. She then lived in Tokyo and traveled parts of East Asia, learning about varied Asian art forms, including Japanese pottery and woodblock printing and Chinese painting and textiles. Karen has worked as an illustrator, graphic designer, writer, and scenic painter for the theater.​