Fresh: Joan Garcia
/Whether you are a fresh graduate or mature artist, it is often a dream to be published for the first time! In the current (and future) issues of UPPERCASE, I have a new column dedicated to featuring such talents.
In issue 35, we meet Joan Garcia, a recently retired public school teacher who would like to become a professional illustrator.
“I have been drawing and painting all of my life and I would like to make this dream of growing as an artist and creating and selling my work a reality. My background has been as an educator of young children with an emphasis on children’s literature. Children’s storybooks and illustrations have always been such a strong part of my life. I feel my work reflects a love of stories and a strong love of colour. My dream clients would be people who appreciate a story told through art and my dream would be to illustrate a book.”
The acrylic painting of the white haired woman is my great aunt Antonia from Spain. The layers of this piece include dressmakers’ pattern tissue, sculpting medium used with stencils and hand-painted coloured tissue paper, giving the impression of Spanish tile in the background.
The girl with the bow is my grandmother Nina as a young girl. I have a photo of her in sepia and I have always loved it—especially the bow. She loved colour and was a very happy, optimistic lady.
A combination of mono print and ink illustration, pieces in the Menagerie collection are created with archival inks from handcut stamps and detailed with pen and ink. Image sizes are approximately 3x5 inches.
I always work in my journal while my paint dries on my canvas. It keeps the flow going!
Paola 58 is part of my "influential women" series.
