Beatrix Ost continues to aspire and inspire.
“Astounding” isn’t a word Beatrix Ost is likely to use often. The Charlottesville-based artist, author, sculptor and filmmaker has traveled extensively during her 76 years, having endured war in her native Germany as a child and surviving skin cancer later in life. She’s not easily fazed.
But when asked to describe the feeling of being honored at London’s Kensington Palace in April for her most recent artistic endeavor, it was the first word that came to her mind. And, after a reflective pause, the second.
Ost was there to be recognized for her efforts to spread awareness of undetonated bombs in Vietnamese fields through her jewelry designs for Article 22, a New York-based company that employs Laotian artisans to craft bracelets and necklaces from war debris. The jewelry—which can be purchased at Charlottesville’s Lynne Goldman Elements and other boutiques worldwide—represents the themes of transformation and redemption evident in Ost’s other art.
“It’s about finding beauty in everything,” she explains. Despite her cosmopolitan reputation, she says she feels most at home in Virginia, where she looks forward to spending the summer tending her livestock and adding an apiary to help sustain the local honeybee population.
“It’s such a beautiful place, and I’m happy here,” she says of her home, before adding the rejoinder of a perennially ambitious artist: “But I want to do more with it.” Article22.comArticle22.com
