Gulf Coast Painting

Joann Amitrano b.1971 Brooklyn, N.Y. Joann’s began her artistic career in 1986, she would create wearable art from beads and found objects. As time went on she ventured into working with metals and would specialize in sculptural wire work jewelry. During this time period she crafted wire work wall sculptures for the home. Joann would use just about any material and often used mementos supplied by her customers to be incorporated into a more personal custom work. Some of her favorite materials to work with are natural gemstones, vintage glass beads, crystals and copper. Painting has always been a passion of hers and was usually in the background until a creative shift pushed it ahead of her jewelry. Since then she has created numerous collections of mixed media works that combine her own photographs within her paintings. These combinations create a kind of semi abstract landscape, of her own vision. Driven by the desire to preserve the ever-changing environment around her, Joann has naturally began cataloguing as much of the changes as she could. Through her lens, she is saying these places, people or times won't be forgotten. While bearing witness to and capturing the transformations of entire neighborhoods and the complexities of the landscape she is also finding the source of her next mixed media painting. Her belief is that photographs serve as a living journal and that change is the one constant in life.