ARTIST STATEMENT
Optimism and joy can be hard to come by here in the third act of life. We are old, easily dismissed, often ignored, we see friends going and dementia coming, our hips ache and we don’t know how to use Instagram. But we do have something special, for which we are eligible only at this time of life. We have grandchildren. And here is joy.
In my case, two little girls bring innocence, humor, energy, pure delight and love to my world. They make everything else worth it.
Going through my vintage hankies collected over the last 60 years from my childhood sock drawer, from my grandmother, my mother, from friends and flea markets, I found just the right ones to connect my granddaughters’ exuberance to my own childhood memories. I painted their faces with watercolor and sewed their images with copper thread onto hankies and nylon net to create Sisters in Milan.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I taught painting and drawing at college and high school levels in California in the 1970s and ‘80s, showing regularly at the Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco, and participating in many shows in the Bay Area. But needing another way to support my growing family, I eventually went back to school.
With two new master’s degrees in Special Education and School Administration, I returned again to teaching, but this time as a specialist in the areas of teaching and learning in upstate New York. I spent very little time doing artwork as days were filled with classroom teaching, leading professional development, and raising three children.
After retiring, I moved from New York to Chicago in 2015. What pleasure at last to have time to work through ideas, rediscover art skills, and create again.
E D U C A T I O N
2001 MS School District Administration, SUNY Cortland
1992 MS Special Education, SUNY Albany
1973 MFA, UC, Berkeley
1972 MA, UC, Berkeley
1970 BFA, U of M, Ann Arbor
E X P E R I E N C E
2018-present Working Artist, Chicago IL
2015-2018 Reading Tutor, Chicago IL
2005-2012 Special Education Teacher, Oneonta NY
1999-2005 Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Staff Development Specialist, Oneonta NY
1991-1999 Special Education Teacher, Schenectady, NY
1978-1989 Fine Arts Teacher, Head-Royce School, Oakland, CA
1978-1979 Fine Arts Lecturer, University of California, Davis
© Julia Costanzo