JoAnn Oransky At an early age, pencil, crayons and watercolor were the tools I used to create visual images of what I saw around me; still life, landscape and figure drawing. It was in art school in Boston with a concentration in commercial art that I was introduced not only to oils and acrylics, but the graphic arts. I could make multiple copies of my art using silkscreen, woodcut and lithography, both fine and commercial art. My eyes were opened to new possibilities. Recently I purchased a computer and color printer. At first I experimented with the simple art program built into the computer. I was amazed at the options it offered in techniques that could be reproduced by pressing buttons. The colors on the images that "flew" out of the printer were vibrant and true. What an adventure! At the suggestion of my good friend and mentor, Beatrice Gordon, I purchased the Painter program. It is a difficult program, but offers endless opportunities for experimentation using and combining new tools with other media. As I am working at the keyboard my thoughts just seem to travel non-stop from the right brain onto the screen! My work is gradually becoming more abstract as I am "seeing" things from this new world of the 21st Century and the wonders technology can produce.
JoAnn Oransky has lived in Portland, Maine since the mid-fifties. After graduation from the University of Maine with BS in art education, she taught art in Westbrook, Portland, and South Portland, Maine, and Jewish crafts at the Portland Community Hebrew School. She created a pictorial Children's Torah for young children of the congregation, and collaborated with a friend to create a series of Judaica in batik/silkcreen; wall hangings, ceremonial objects, and cards incorporating Hebrew calligraphy and design included in The Jewish Yellow Pages. Her work has been exhibited in Kolbo, Boston; Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset; Ogunquit Art Center, Danforth and Six Deering St. Galleries in Portland.
Travelling around the country and in Puerto Rico, she packs a sketch pad, oilstix, colored pencils and a watercolor kit to illustrate her journal writings. JoAnn can be contacted via e-mail at joran60@verizon.net.