Karen Levi-Lausa

The source of my creativity has been ever present during my entire life, an unstoppable energy and imagination that were used throughout my student days, and subsequent careers and always appeared through my approach to projects, problem-solving, and a long career working with books, literacy, and social justice in our prisons. I explored dark and light contrasts in art during the pandemic when my beloved work shut down and I found that painting in a crowded corner of unused space with a cheap, wobbly easel began to reignite my creative void. Through persistence, and by submerging myself in learning ways to bring color, balance, and movement of paint on the canvas, the ever present magic of the natural world and a passion for literature fuel my work. Images of confinement (boundaries, incarceration) juxtaposed with the freedom of open water swimming (a passion) are my muses. I want my art to excite, comfort, and be an enduring source of delight.

Antioch College, BA in Literature
State University of New York @ Albany, Masters in Library Science
Art classes and lifelong learning:
Four years of advanced hand building/ceramics
Artify: virtual classes in composition and layering
Art2Life Creative Visionary Program/2024 alumni Academy member
Jenny Nelson/ Woodstock School of Art: Exploring Abstraction
Figurative Drawing- Curtis Center for the Arts, Greenwood Village, CO
Artist Residency 2025- Jen Tough Gallery, Santa Fe

Small exhibits in various venues in Denver, Colorado. Rotating pieces with staging businesses/real estate, curated pieces for sale at design businesses such as Rogala Design in Denver. Numerous sales of my work via Instagram and Denver galleries... collectors from the UK, Canada, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and US.