Spring 08
Vol. 15/ No. 1

Karen Rhodes

Although a declared dog lover, 8th-semester nursing student Karen Rhodes is more catlike in nature.

As a fiercely independent 22-year-old, she wound her way around to the nursing profession through biochemistry, the death of her grandmother and the silent influence of her mother.

“My grandmother passed away not too long ago,” she says, “and we were with her before she passed. I watched my mother use her nursing skills to take care of her. If my mom hadn't been there, my grandma wouldn't have gotten the care she did.”

After one semester as a biochemistry major at Mizzou, she switched to nursing — much to her mother's surprise.

“It was during a course in mental health nursing that I learned the art of nursing is putting patients in the best position to heal themselves, not for you to heal them,” the petite, almost 5' 1” blonde says. “So I started looking for ways to calm myself down – not keeping things bottled up inside. These days I try a little harder to take care of all parts of myself, including my spiritual side.”

Artistic expression was highly encouraged during Rhodes ' growing up years. Her parents educated her and her sister Paula about nature, and every Sunday after church their father engaged them in weekly art lessons.

“When I was six years old, my dad was teaching us about shading,” laughs Rhodes . “You can just image my teacher's reaction when I would request crayons over markers because you couldn't shade with markers.”

But as she moved away to college, art moved to the back burner. And she didn't consider it important until last semester. As the stresses of nursing school took their toll, she started taking drives and immersing herself in nature and escaping human interaction. Her process of exploring all the options open to her brought her back full circle to her love of artistic expression.

“I feel more connected and spiritual when I'm out hiking in the woods,” Rhodes says. “This quiet time re-establishes that I'm part of something bigger than myself.”

Walking, therapeutic in itself, led to photography. She experiments with angles, especially the highs and lows, because she believes too many people spend their time looking around at eye level thus missing the greatness above and below them.

Her different perspective on life came from those awkward pre-teen years. Rhodes firmly believes that because she was at the bottom of the pecking order in the fifth and six grades she gained the understanding of people she has today.

“This experience made me look at life from all angles,” she says. “That along with everything I learned from watching the mistakes my sister made. She made one set of mistakes, which I avoided, and I made another set. Besides when you are only 5'1” you have to look up and gain a different perspective on people and things.”

However after enjoying the quiet, sunny spots, Rhodes moves from appreciation to critic. When painting, she allows herself to be selfish — time just for herself. “It's good stress,” she says while sipping a cup of steaming tea. “I can be as critical as I want to be. I can look at the flaws in my painting and work with it until it's just the way I want it to be. I create for me.”

That same independent attitude is fully present in how Rhodes is creating her life. She is balanced and centered and knows how to recognize when she's not. My mom raised me to be a citizen of the world, Rhodes admits.

So she is finding her own way through life, faults and all, knowing she'll end up where she will contribute the most in life.

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