Janet Howard-Fatta

Artist Statement

I have always followed the path that creativity paves for me. As an artist, a mother, arts event organizer, graphic designer, gardener, and teacher, I strive to serve the community around me. I live a creative life with a desire to keep learning and to continue to develop a strong, beautiful, interesting body of work. My other interests are in art history, graphic design, illustration, the healing arts, community building and sustainability. I will always contribute to society in a way that is open to possibilities, creativity and aesthetics. I seek to be self-aware, this awareness, I believe is why I continue to grow.
I have been painting all my life. I started oil painting when I was nine years old, with Lee Mroczkowski, a traditional old school painter. I think Bob Brooke gave me my first watercolor lesson when I was 12. I graduated High School of Art & Design with a major in illustration, earned my BFA at Pratt Institute in painting. My biggest influences at Pratt were from Mary Buckley, a color theorist and Al Blaustien, a wonderful draughtsman. I find inspiration in my garden, my walks, love, friendship, family, nature, death and birth. All of life feeds me and I question everything. Through it all, I keep painting, drawing, exploring different mediums and taking life with all its deliciously, rich, diverse and sometimes painful toppings. At this juncture in my life, I am searching for a more meaningful, spiritual journey that incorporates my artwork and life.

I was born and raised on Staten Island. I have seen the radical changes in the landscape there. I grew up on a street with six houses surrounded by woods and a stream. Now there are houses between those houses where I once built structures of mud and sticks. Through my art, I preserve these beautiful places in my memory, in my own backyard, in Warwick.
When I pass by the Miller barn, I look out at that field, pristine, untouched. The calm, steady quality of it draws me in. And then a sadness descends, knowing that change is inevitable.
My paintings allow me to experience those landscapes in all their natural glory.

To create the landscape series, I visit and paint on location in Warwick. Painting on location enables me to use all of my senses. I work quickly and intuitively. I try to feel the land. I am that. I become the path or the barn. Time of day, birds taking flight, atmosphere, temperature, light, movement, the smell of a grassy field...all inform my painting. I fall in love with light every time I paint. Light is energy pure creative energy and I embrace it.

Selected Exhibitions
Orange County Arts Federation 46th Annual Juried Show, Newburgh NY, November, 2009 (Third Place)
Horizon- A landscape Show, Gallery Warwick, Warwick, NY, October 2009
Orange County Studio Tour, 2009
Art on the Trail, Highland Falls Library, Highland Falls, NY October, 2009
Crib Gallery, 4 Artists, Chester, New York, June, 2008
Hooked on the Hook, Artists in the Park, Nyack State Beach Powerhouse, June, 2009
Beacon Artists Union, Line & the Golden Rectangle, Beacon, NY, April 2009
Drawings, Gallery Warwick, Warwick, NY, February 2009
McWen Street Gallery, Warwick, NY October 2008
Art in the Garden, Warwick Gardens, June 2008 & 2009
Artery, Emergence, New Milford, PA, April 2008
Warwick Studio Tour, Warwick, NY, 2007
Village Life Art Competition, First Place, Warwick Grove, Warwick, NY, June 2007
Voices From the Woods, Warwick, NY, July 2006 : Philadelphia, PA, August 2006
Mannequin Project, Warwick, NY, July 2006
Warwick Art League Members Annual Show, Sugarloaf, NY, 2006
5th Annual Hudson Valley Women’s Show, Cornwall, NY, March, 2006
Warwick Studio Tour 2005, Port of Call Gallery, Warwick, NY
4th Annual Hudson Valley Women’s Show, Newburgh, NY, March, 2005
Watercolors: Abstract: Smithtown Art Assoc., Smithtown, NY, February 2005
Currier & Lazier Realtors, Warwick, NY, Dec. 2004

Bodies of Work
American Family Dinner Series, oil paintings 1998-present
Landscape Painting Series, Oil Paintings, 2002-present
Life Study - the Umber Series, Watercolour, 2003-current

Education
Long Island Art League, Ceramics, 1997- 2001
Suffolk Community College, Drawing, 1996
Brooklyn College, Drawing and Education classes, 1993 -1994
Pratt Institute, Bachelors Fine Arts, Painting 1987-1991
High School of Art & Design, Illustration, 1987

Affiliations
Artists in the Parks, 2008-present, Publicity Chairperson
Warwick Art League 2006-2010
Warwick Life Drawing Group, 2002- Current
Stonybrook Figure Drawing & Painting Sessions 1996-1999

Community Work
Facilitate Collaborative Murals with Community at Summer Arts Festival 2008, 2009
Sumer Arts festival Windows. 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Partners in Education-Volunteering in elementary school classroom each week, working with teachers working the arts in the NY State curriculum

Moderator, Warwick Life Drawing Group, Seligman Studio, Sugarloaf, 2002- current
PTAAssemblies Chairperson, 2007,2008,2009

Teaching & Work Experience
Greenwood Lake Senior Citizens Center- Art Teacher, June 2008-present
Semi-private art lessons- ages 10-17 , drawing & painting, April 06 -current
arts in Healthcare-participant in a group sharing ideas about teachin in non-traditional settings-current
Creator/Organizer of "Art in the Garden", a local art exhibit with local businesses, 2008 & 2009
Visting Artist, Warwick Schools, Collaborative Mural - Crossroads, March-May 2009
The Moving Company, Summer Art Workshops, 2006-2009
Coordinator, Woodlanders Gathering, Warwick, NY, 2005 & 2006
Northern Lights Academy of the Arts, Figure Drawing Instructor, 2004
Albert Wisner Library, Village College, Warwick Art League and Middletown Arts. Assoc., Figure Drawing Workshops, April 2006, Feb. 2005, Sept. 2004, April 2003
Graphic Design, J. D'Addario & Company, Farmingdale, NY1996-2002
Graphic Design, Lifetime Brands, Westbury, NY 1991-1996

Personal
Janet now works & plays in Warwick, NY with her husband sculptor/art teacher Louis Fatta with their two children, a flock of ducks & one very big black labrador retriever.