about Karen   

ABOUT JOAN

There was never a doubt in Joan's mind about what she wanted to do when she grew up. A natural communicator, early on it was paint that became the voice with which she expressed herself.

While a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Joan won a Ford Foundation fellowship to study painting in Venice, Italy, an amazing, rich experience where she began a life long exploration of paint, color, and pattern.

At that time, the solitary life of a painter did not hold as much allure for her as the idea of interacting in some way with people. Upon returning to the United States, she discovered the world of printed pattern for the textile industry, in both Apparel and Decorative Home Furnishings.

With her characteristic enthusiasm, she totally immersed herself in learning the craft. It wasn't long before she set up her own studio and was designing prints full time. Joan loves the medium. She has had a long and very successful career designing licensed collections of decorative fabrics, wallcoverings, and home furnishings products for leading companies in the field.

Joan's clients included many well known designers such as Bill Blass, Ann Fogarty, Cecil Beaton, Everett Brown, Angelo Donghia, and Louis Bowen. A list of companies who have commissioned her work include: West Point Stevens, Charterhouse Designs, Schumacher, Patterson, Flynn, and Martin, Nobilis(Paris), P. Kaufmann, Neiman Marcus, Caspari, and many others.

With her flair for the dramatic, many of her fabrics and mural paintings have found their way into the movies and homes of luminaries of the entertainment field. Her work is in private collections throughout the country.

She is the recipient of the Resources Council Popular Choice Award for excellence in Contemporary Fabrics, the Tommy Award, and the Roscoe, for which she has been nominated many times.

Karen and Joan have been nominated several times for the Tommy Award for their work together.

Joan's attraction to mass communication has given way to a need for the intimacy between artist and canvas. She is now painting and drawing full time.

If there is a pervasive theme in Joan's art, it would be an energetic use of color and line, which is instinctively musical, and even acrobatic.