Karen Arch, who has a BFA in Art and Constructive Design from Florida State University, started out as a designer of fine jewelry. Working in silver and gold she created one-of-a-kind cloisonné pieces, some of which are in the permanent collection of the Albuquerque Museum of Art. Fast forwarding through marriage, motherhood, extensive travel, and experimental art, in 2010, she and her husband came to Mexico and fell in love with Mineral de Pozos. They restored a crumbling ruin there and became full-time residents of the hauntingly beautiful pueblo fantasma.

It was here, on a hike amongst the fabled dilapidated mining haciendas, Arch picked up a rusting slab of old iron, the patina and texture of which sparked her imagination and awakened the possibilities of manipulating and coloring metal. That iron resembled a vestment in shape and established the theme of real and imagined ancient garments that runs through her work.

Arch subsequently set up her studio, “Experimetál,” and over the next few years continued to work with new and old iron, and then with copper. The more malleable copper inspired her first feathered work. “I researched the use of feathers in pre-Hispanic Mexico,” she says. “I discovered they had feather workers called amantecas, who designed for the high priests and royalty.”

Arch’s re-imagined feathered garments are every bit as suitable for royalty. Each feather is cut by hand, and she has developed the method for coloring and patination by extensive trial and error. No two batches are exactly alike. Further, she meticulously places the feathers using impressionist techniques. “I create large and small color fields with the patinated feathers,” she says. “I love the graceful shapes and movements when they are hung in big quantities.” Each piece is backed by leather and, “I also use it, often overlaid with gold leaf, to add dimension and detail to many of my works.”

Arch is represented by the Calderoni Gallery in San Miguel de Allende. She launched her Mexico-inspired creative endeavor with a one-woman sellout show there in February 2020. She was also included in “Mujeres en el Arte” show at the gallery in August 2021. Her pieces have been placed in many private collections in Mexico and the United States, and she continues to create new works as well as producing commissions on request.