Artist Connects with Natural Elements

Karen Rich Beall, resident artist at A Studio in the Woods, will display her three-dimensional works based on lichens and ferns at an open studio event on Saturday (Jan. 30).

The event will take place from noon until 3 p.m. at the studio, located at 13401 Patterson Road on New Orleans' West Bank. The studio, a program of the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research, is dedicated to preserving the endangered bottomland hardwood forest and providing within it a peaceful retreat where visual, literary and performing artists can work uninterrupted.

Beall bases her work on lichens and ferns found in the studio's forest. She collects samples from the woods and sketches them in detail using a microscope, then renders them in three dimensions using felted hand-knitting, papier mache and other mixed media.

A native of West Palm Beach, Fla., the artist teaches ceramics and sculpture as an adjunct instructor of art at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania.

She is completing a six-week "Changing Landscapes" residency at A Studio in the Woods. The residencies are based on the premise that Southern Louisiana can be seen as a microcosm of the global environment. Four artists are participating in this year's program, funded in part by the Ford Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.