Novak, Karen (Laub) 1937-2009

NOVAK, LAUB, HOLTON, MILLER, GEHLING, SWENSON

Posted By: Jill McCarville (email)
Date: 8/26/2013 at 17:24:25

Karen Laub-Novak, 71

WASHINGTON,D.C.- Karen Laub-Novak of Washington, D.C. and Lewes, Del. died Wednesday morning, August 12, 2009 at the age of 71 from cancer. Services were held on August 17, at the the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Washington, D.C.

DeVol Funeral Home handled the arrangements.

Sculptor, painter, printmaker and writer, Karen Laub-Novak constantly searched the traditions of the old masters, yet her work was always new and personal. From paintings, prints to sculptures, her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and is represented in many private collections. Her illustrations have also appeared in magazines, books, newspapers, and filmstrips.

Karen Laub-Novak was born August 25, 1937 in Minneapolis, Minn., the daughter of George and Mary (Swenson) Laub of Cresco. She attended Assumption Grade School and graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1955. She cherished her small-town roots in Cresco while exploring both the wider world, and the inner world. While earning a BA from Carleton College, Northwood, Minn. in 1959 and an MFA in painting and printmaking from the University of Iowa in 1961, she studied painting with Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg, Austria; printmaking with Mauricio Lasansky; and poetry writing at the Iowa writers' workshop.

On June 29, 1963 she married Michael Novak of Johnstown, Penn. in Assumption Church in Cresco.

Laub-Novak has taught art and humanities at Carleton, Stanford, Syracuse, Georgetown, Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., the University of California, Riverside, Impressions Studio in Boston, and CIDOC in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

She is a Kent-Danforth fellow and has been listed in Outstanding Young Women of America, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in the East, and Who's Who in American Art.

She volunteered art and counseling to family members at Walter Reed Army Hospital and the Washington, D.C. National Guard.

Karen Novak-Laub is survived by her husband of more than 46 years, author Michael Novak of Washington, D.C.; three children: Richard Novak (Lucy) of San Antonio, Texas, Tanya Holton (Randall) of Boston, Mass. and Jana Miller (John) of Denver, Colo.; four grandchildren: Emily and Stephen Novak and Wiley and Julia Holton; her sister: Gretchen Laub and her children: Lucy Gehling, Tanya Laub and George Laub; and siblings in-law: Ben Novak and Mary Ann Novak.

She was preceded in death by her father: George R. Laub on May 30, 1975; her mother: Mary on October 12, 2006; a brother at birth in 1941; and a niece Sarah on April 5, 2001.

Times Plain Dealer August 26, 2009 Page 12A
Transcribed by Jill McCarville from the files of Janice Sowers