About The Artist

Karyn Alzayer has been a practicing artist since 2012. She works primarily in henna body art, fiber art, and painting, and often combines techniques from these mediums. 

In addition to henna as traditional body art, Alzayer has worked to apply henna-style artwork across many types of projects. She was one of the featured artists for Street Pianos Boston in 2016, and the selected artist for the Dedham Bunny Project in 2018. Alzayer’s traveling participatory projects include Wishing Wall for Everett, Catching Malden’s Dreams, and Malden Reads: Influential Books. 

Having spent almost a decade as an elementary classroom music teacher prior to her career as an artist, Alzayer draws on her extensive educational training when working with groups, teaching classes, drawing others in with her participatory art pieces, and explaining her process.

Alzayer is best known for her piece, Caged Ducklings that took place in the Boston Public Garden in August 2019. Internment camp cages and mylar blankets were placed over the baby ducklings in the famous Make Way for Ducklings sculpture, separating them from their mother and making a bold statement on child separation that was featured across national news outlets. 

Alzayer continues to work at the intersection of art and activism, currently serving as the President and Executive Director of Integral Arts Everett, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating and expanding opportunities to engage with the arts for the citizens of Everett and surrounding communities.