In Chile people who like to travel or wander the earth, who are curious enough about other parts of the world that they are rarely at home for long, are sometimes affectionately called 'patiperros' (like the dogs roaming the streets). There are over 5000 Chilean-born residents in the UK according to the 2001 UK census, no doubt the figures will show an incerase when the latest census data comes out over 2012/13. So what are they all up to? Well, we caught up with one Chilena currently living in the UK, artist Karin Momberg, who talks to us about her art, journey in life and how she made her way to England. Chileno: Tell us about yourself, Karin.Karin: I was born in Santiago, Chile. Ever since I was little, I always had an inclination towards art, my notebooks were filled with drawings and if they were not drawings, they were stories written by me or I made craft work. My inner world was (and still is) deeply rich in colours and shapes. All my experiences from, music, books, flavours, aromas, different languages, people, gestures, are all part of the inspiration that flows through me. I'm very curious, everything catches my attention, I am amazed and fascinated with what I like and I think that feeds my art infinitely. I always knew I wanted to devote myself to art and that's how I started studying Design in Equipment in 1995 at ULS [Universidad de La Serena, Chile]. This process gave me many tools and structure to carry out more specific creative work, but what my heart was filled with was visual art, painting and drawing.I did my first solo exhibition in 1999, through which I met very valuable people, I made my first sale and it gave me the confidence to follow my artistic path. Later I carried out other exhibitions, individually and collectively, made several trips to the U.S. where my sister lives and I started working there for a nonprofit foundation (The Snowman Foundation) making illustrations for children. I taught painting through expression for children and I organised an auction of paintings donated by various artists, to benefit two nonprofit foundations that help women and children victims of domestic violence. After finishing my career in design, I lived in Ravenna, Italy, where I fell in love with ancient mosaics. My time in Italy was very important on an artistic and personal level.Now living in England I started making mosaics with broken plates.... literally!, all this began when I received as a gift a couple of old plates that were broken and I did not want to throw them away.... Then I looked at ancient pottery, half broken, cracked etc.... I ended up being interested in English pottery and porcelain, what wonders! I keep making mosaics with different materials but mostly utilitarian pottery. I started working with mandalas after having had a very special dream, it quickly became a part of me and made my art evolve to a more spiritual level. Following my own experience I can say that art has incredible healing properties, which has been an area that I wanted to develop for many years. I am currently studying Clinical Hypnosis and I am deeply grateful to have discovered this new vocation, which will certainly complement the art.Cu

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