Karelisse Caraballo Villanueva is a Puerto Rican artist born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During her childhood, she always explored art by creating gifts for her loved ones—something that remains a part of her life today. Upon graduating from middle school, she decided to enroll in a vocational school, where she considered becoming a draftsman but ultimately found greater interest in commercial art. She earned her high school and vocational diploma from the Escuela Vocacional Metropolitana Miguel Such, where she learned aspects of drawing such as light and shadow, color theory, and various design techniques for businesses, including business card design, logo creation, and advertisements, with the support of programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

The next step in her education was university. Karelisse initially enrolled in the Escuela de Arquitectura (school of architecture) at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. During her studies, she gained a new perspective on art through courses in design, introduction to architecture, freehand drawing, technical drawing, and AutoCAD. However, she soon decided to take a different direction in her professional career, switching to labor relations. Near the completion of her bachelor's degree, she had elective credits available and enrolled in a basic painting course, marking her first interaction with acrylic painting on canvas.

One of the first assignments in the course was to create a monochromatic landscape and use only primary colors to compose her works. Karelisse recalls that while the process initially felt intimidating, this experience further expanded her desire to be creative and produce art. She completed her Bachelor's degree in Labor Relations with Magna Cum Laude honors, promising herself that once she established professionally and had a stable income, she would study art and begin laying the foundation for her artistic career.

Keeping her promise, in January 2024, she learned about the “Completa la Figura” (Complete the Figure) contest by Quinto Orden and participated, ultimately winning with a painting titled Lo que sueño ("What I Dream"). This artwork depicts a landscape and represents both an ending and a new beginning in her career. The piece incorporates elements of her artistic style, blending media such as acrylic paint, watercolors, markers, and even colored pencils.

In the future, Karelisse hopes to share more of her creations on her social media page, Kolores, sí. Her plans include incorporating everything she has learned through her artistic journey to create products for sale, utilizing her knowledge of digital art while continuing to produce drawings and paintings on canvas and paper. She also hopes to explore adding three-dimensional elements to her paintings and dreams of creating a collection that will allow her to hold her own art exhibition.