ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES - JANET TAVA

Janet Tava was born in 1956. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts; in addition, she was educated at Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology, and later was enrolled to complete her Masters's Degree at the School of Visual Arts. Much of her career has been spent in the position of Studio Head Designer for a United States corporation. Her artwork has been featured in several prominent architectural and domestic living magazines; one of her wallpaper and fabric presentations called the Sakura Collection was introduced to the press in 1985.

Tava uses acrylic paint as her medium of choice; she employs a hand-screening process on foil paper, a method used in ancient Chinese artwork. Often she uses up to2,000 sheets of tissue paper on a single canvas to create an interesting surface. Commenting on her work, she says, I feel my work is a representation for my soul...light, airy, and constantly changing.

She finds inspiration for her work from the small corner of an antique fabric and wood block; it is her interpretation of this small visual image that becomes her final creation.