By Barb Lockhard
FROM ADA ICON - If the New Mexico landscape was an inspiration to artist Georgia O’Keeffe in the 1920s, decades later it may have also been a visual training ground for Ada photographer Karen Ward. 

- All post cards in the series are attached below -

Arriving in Ada nearly 30 years ago from Las Cruces, New Mexico, Ward fell in love with “the charm of the yesteryear vintage of this small village.”  She’s been photographing Ada ever since.

Ward has created a collection of postcards featuring Ada’s historic landmarks and unique perspectives of everyday scenes. 

Ruth Roider, owner of The Gallery for the Arts on South Main Street, encouraged Ward to undertake the postcard project in response to many requests from ONU students and their parents. They wanted a way to show off their university town and postcards were the answer. 

“It was a common sense venture to help the public obtain economical pieces of visual communications of Ada to send to their friends and/or family,” Ward said. 

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ward gravitated toward photography when she took two courses as an art major at ONU.  Robert Bailey, a professional photographer from Manhattan and a former Ohio resident, taught one of the courses.  She remembers that one course was in black and white photography while the other was digital photography. 

A few of the postcard shots have been taken from The Ada Photo Book, one of Ward’s published creative efforts. Many of the photos, however, are being published for the first time. 

Some are of Ada’s historic icons, while others capture scenes of everyday life from an artist’s perspective.

“I enjoy seeing a glimpse of the unique in the mundane and then capturing it with my camera,” Ward added.  “It’s a treasure hunt to walk to a section of town and see what I might find. I expect nothing and find everything!” 

Ward also expressed a love for Ada’s landmarks and lists among her favorite shots, sunrises in the Ada Park area, the Presbyterian Church at sunset, and the Ada historical depot in a snowstorm (a particular favorite).  In addition to photography, she also enjoys working in watercolors and acrylics.

“I like mixing mediums and developing textures.”

Some of Ward’s photos have been on exhibit at The Gallery for the Arts in Ada and at ArtSpace in Lima. A photo of her mother’s hands snapping green beans placed in The Lima News Annual Photo Contest a few years ago. 

The Ada postcard collection as well as The Ada Photo Book can be purchased at The Gallery for the Arts, 115 S. Main Street, Ada. 

Gallery hours are:
• Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. and
• Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• By appointment and during downtown events

Some scenes of Ada and Ohio Northern can be found at The INN at Ohio Northern University’s Gift Shop.