< Artists
Joanne Rafferty
Joanne Rafferty is one of America’s most popular contemporary artists. Her abstract work of splashes with vibrant color and quick line convey not just a lively style and pure technique, but her intense joy in her art and a deep appreciation for the forms found in the many faces of land, sky and sea. Her landscapes are layered in deep, rich colors with wonderful textures of exotic hand-made papers, metallics, collage and glass beads. She builds from horizontal schemes and creates visual islands engulfed in color, texture and golden string.
Of her own artwork, Joanne writes “the journey of one color vibrating through another and the balancing of light as more and more collage pieces are incorporated into my work makes the concept of the landscape richer, sometimes more complicated, sometimes freer, producing a sense of motion and a place for contemplation. The uncertainty is the adventure; there is a higher vision. Perhaps over the horizon line the vision becomes clearer. Sometimes it only leads to another quest, that not being the final journey. My landscapes challenge traditional boundaries and sometimes give us new ones. Not always referencing specific memories, sometimes incorporating visual shorthand, the collage elements evoke fragments and memories of a universal nature.”
Joanne received her B.S. in art at the Daemon College in Buffalo, New York and the State University of New York at Buffalo and she has enjoyed a career spanning thirty years. She is listed in Who’s Who in American Art: 2000 Outstanding Artists and Designers of the 20th Century, Strathmore Who’s Who, Mantle Faulding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptures and Engravers 2001, and is a member of the National Association of Women Artists.
As a professional artist she has been honored for her many years as a professional artist and has received awards in numerous juried exhibitions. Her original works are held in over 1000 public and private collections. Selected public collections include: Conoco DuPont, Exxon Corporation, Master Charge International, Johnson and Johnson, U.S. Trust and Merrill Lynch.