The valley has been instrumental in developing Puente's esthetic. "At first I was more oblivious to my surroundings," the artist admits, "but as I mature, I begin to appreciate the hills, and the color of the light. It's breathtakingly beautiful and that's showing up more, in my art; the subtlety of the landscape. The light here is particularly extraordinary."

Puente was born in Fresno but spent most of her life in the Solvang and Buellton areas. As a child, she was not particularly interested in drawing. "I did the usual kid doodling, but I was more interested in academics and sports."

"I always knew there was something special about Karina," says Blanca Puente of her daughter's talent. "I knew when she was two years old that God had blessed her. By the time she was nine, she was sculpting animals out of playdough. One giraffe was so incredibly detailed and proportioned, I was amazed. Two seconds later, her younger brother squished it."

In the eighth grade, a friend took Puente to Art Night at Santa Ynez Valley High School. Every Thursday night, art teacher Connie Rohde-Stanchfield, held an art workshop for valley children. "My first sketches were small line drawings," says Puente, "and human faces." Her mother remembers her early sketches; "I'd always known she had talent, but that art class brought so much out. It's not always easy to have such a gift, but Karina manages well. She works hard and she doesn't abuse it. She's an exceptional young woman and I'm so proud to be a part of her life."

By the time Puente enrolled as a freshman at Santa Ynez Valley High School, Rohde-Stanchfield recognized her talent and moved Puente into an advanced art class. Puente praises her high school's art program and Rohde-Stanchfield in particular. "It's a good, comprehensive program, and Connie has been a real inspiration to me."

Puente has currently completed over 200 paintings and drawings, and has recently taken up sculpture. An informal agreement with Los Olivos-based Judith Hale Gallery makes Hale, who discovered Puente at a high school Chalk Festival two years ago, her sole representative.

Hale's first glimpse of Puene's work two years ago was on concrete, not canvas. Her daughter Jennifer, who was in art class with Puente, insisted that her mother look at the young artist's work. Hale was impressed; "Karina is a phenomenal talent. Her work is so provocative and sensual and mature for a young person." She gave Puente her first show on July 28, 2000, which was so well received that most of the show sold out immediately, at competitive market prices. Now Hale has a list of people who want to be the first to know when Puente has completed a new work.

Puente's first show "was very exciting," says the artist, who enjoyed choosing, with the help of Hale and Rohde-Stanchfield, frames for her works. "Ralph Young was the frame-maker, and he did a wonderful job."

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Art is an important part of Puente's life, "but it's not my entire life," she explains. She is currently holding a 3.9 GPA while taking advanced placement ceramics, art history, advanced art and an independent art project, having completed all her graduation requirements in her junior year. "I got all that stuff out of the way so I could do what I wanted," says Puente, who wants to play sports-soccer in particular-play harmonic and guitar, and read works by Herman Hesse, and Walt Whitman. She writes poetry too. "There's a certain correlation between the act of creating art and poetry, it's all about self expression, about communicating something and really getting to the core of yourself."

Puente recently took up sculpting, inspired by the works of Santa Barbara sculptor Javier Marin, a Mexico City based artist she discovered at a Santa Barbara show, while researching an art history project. "His work is so expressive, and he takes things he's learned from studying classical sculpture in Greek and Roman times and mixes it in with his own raw, beautiful style. I saw his work, and I began to sculpt." Marin sculpts in clay, and traditional mediums used by ancient Mexican sculptors; Puente sculpts with clay, plaster, wire "and anything I can glue together." Her sculptures are human forms and abstract forms, bigger than life size, "but not as big as I'd like them to be, because I'm just getting started. As I keep developing this new medium, my sculptures will get bigger."

Not every senior at Santa Ynez High School is aware of the art of Gustave Klimpt, Egon Schiele, Lucien Freud, let alone inspired by it, but Puente says that her status as top selling teenaged artist has not interfered with her life as a normal high school student. "I hang out in the art room, but I'm not in an art clique. I have all kinds of friends. Some of them paint, some play water polo." Among the artists are fellow senior Cole Hobbs, "who does a lot of abstract work along with portraits," and 19-year-old Lily Nathan, "a very expressive, rustic painter who had a show at the Karpeles Manuscript Library in Santa Barbara."

"When someone gains recognition at school," says Puente, "people notice. My teachers and peers go to my shows. But I just keep doing my own thing. I get a lot of support from my family, my mother Blanca, who is an amazing woman, my older sister Michelle, and my younger brothers Joaquin and Sam. They're beginning to get interested in art and I try to encourage them."

What's next for Puente? She's been accepted at the Maryland Institute of Art, and she's also got her eye on Cooper Union in New York and Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. Over the years she's already won scholarships and awards, including a gold medal from the Scholastic Art and Writing Award Competition for her portfolio, a silver medal for her ceramics, and an honorable mention for two paintings. As a sophomore, a pastel work entitled "Lost in Da Woods" won an American Vision Award. The piece was on loan to an AVA sponsor, and was short-listed to hang in more prestigious shows on the east coast. But the sponsor's office happened to be in the World Trade Center's Tower One on September 11th, and Puente's work was destroyed.

Right now, Puente's goal to make a living making art. I'd like to work with children, and put together an art appreciation program to help them get involved in art. And I'd like to paint some murals, too. I've had a few offers for that, but I've been too busy."