about the artist

OLIVIA JANNA, MFA
The importance of process, play, and experience are the components that inform my work  today. In my paintings “Finding My Voice” I confront loss, unknown desires, motherhood and fear.

The tools I use today I learned from my education and experience. The importance of process I learned as a child when at play. I studied illustration, textile design and painting in college at Rhode Island School of Design. Illustration incorporated my strong drawing hand, while textiles taught me about pattern and color. Painting is a world of complete freedom, bound to the rigors of compositional laws but is not defined by any rules. Painting is a blank canvas for storytelling.  

While completing an MFA program at Lesley University College of Art and Design, curiosity lead me to investigate the formal relationship between play and creativity. I developed interactive installations using constructive and deconstructive building materials. This body of work engaged children and adults alike in controlled risk behavior—in other words, play.
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Today I tell stories. I make paintings that combine childhood memories with adult behaviors. The work investigates the relationships in the past in a playful and serious manor. My strengths, drawing, pattern, and color, are incorporated with my love for story telling.

Education
1986 , BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
2005, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2014 MFA, Lesley University College of Art and Design, Art institute of Boston

Work Experience
2008-2010, Teacher, Open Art Room
2011-2013, Director, Superheroes

Art Shows
2011, Stepping Stones,  AVA Gallery, Lebanon, NH