Karl J. Volk was born in Brooklyn in 1932, but
a year later was sent to Germany to live with
his paternal uncles and their wives. It was
They who raised him until the war was over
and he returned to the United States.
There he lived in the Bedford Stuyvesant
Section of Brooklyn where his father and
mother had a Meat and Grocer;y Store.
After attending Halsey Jr. High and Boy’s High
School, he attended Brooklyn College, there
earning his B A. He later earned an MA at New
York University in Art Education.

He taught in several places until he settled
atthe Spackenkill Schools in the
Poughkeepsie area. Volk taught 26 years in
the Spackenkill Schools, from 1962 to 1988,
he retired to devote himself to his art, and to
taking care of his mother. Since her death in
1990, he has been creating works of art in
various media and styles.

artist’s statement
I like to use watercolors and to work with cut papers and photographic
images.

My greatest interest supersedes mere
depiction of the world as it is. My desire is to
discover how the world can be transformed
and transfigured through art with the mind of
the individual artist.

Photography has supplanted the need for
painting in a realistic manner except in
illustration. However, I am very interested in
nature as well, and so I do revert to painting
landscapes from time to time.