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This month marks a milestone for Karin Skiba, who has been on a 50-year art journey woven from paper, paint, intuition, and lived experience.
Her retrospective exhibition, Tapestries, Paper, and Paint, opens May 17 during the Yucca Valley Artwalk and runs through June 16. It celebrates color, character, and creative independence. The title, she says, comes partly from Carole King’s Tapestry and partly from the materials themselves.
“The work is mostly work that’s on paper, based on paper with paint. I’m a collage freak, And I save just about everything, and I can find a use for it..
Skiba’s artistic practice isn’t just a craft; it’s a lifeline.
“The art making has helped me through all sorts of different things in my life…it’s very important to me. It’s integral to my personality. It’s who I am.”
The exhibition includes large-scale collages of Detroit’s decaying architecture, fictional portraits of women, and works layered with beads and symbolic feathers—echoes of her childhood love for storytelling, fashion, and mythology.
Skiba spent over 20 years teaching in the community college system. She helped establish the gallery at Norco College, wrote its mission statement, and held her 40-year Retrospective there before stepping away to focus more fully on her art.
Now, she’s entering a new phase: experimenting with scale and materials and deepening her connection to the local creative scene.
“It’s a celebration of 50 years of an art adventure.”
The opening reception is Saturday, May 17, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Hi-Desert Artists Gallery, 55635 29 Palms Highway, Yucca Valley. The show runs through June 16.
