Castlegar artist/gardener Kari Burk was born in 1962 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, 1986 with a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies and has 20 years of dance/movement training with EDAM, Anna Wyman Dance, Steve Paxton and Odette Slater.

Working mainly in painting, illustration and photography she is also author of 16 self published poetry chap books and Snapshot of a Soul Place (published 2015) which, in part, was funded by a Columbia Basin Trust/Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance grant. This book, told in paintings, prose and photography, illustrates the journey she has been on, thus far, with her daughter Mielle who is a young woman with Down Syndrome. The book is available at Kootenay Gallery of Art in Castlegar, Selkirk College Bookstore, Otter Books in Nelson and on the Snapshot of a Soul Place website.

In 2010 Ms. Burk received a CKCA/CBT grant to produce "I am HERe tonight!" an International Women’s Day event for Castlegar at The Old Castle Theatre. This event consisted of short presentations by five generations of women within our community.

Ms. Burk has been a participant in the annual Castlegar Artwalk for 12 years and in 2018 illustrated "Welcome To Codyville" an autobiographical book by local author Cody Simmons.

You can find Kari's art work on "The Harpy Medium" on facebook, read her poetry / prose on "The Unscrutable Rutabaga" on wordpress and find her selling Muddy Tutu's Organized Grime & Garden Art trees and plants at the annual Castlegar Nature and Gardenfest in May.