Janice Lowry - a Tribute

From April 2009 to September 2009, a woman that I did not know ... lived out her last days after a diagnosis of Stage 4 liver cancer. I learned this as I began researching her for this blog post ... I found a blog that her husband, Jon, started in April of this year. You can visit it here: http://janicelowry.blogspot.com/ And you can visit her website here: http://www.janicelowry.com/

Her name was JANICE LOWRY and she was a mixed media / assemblage artist of the highest order. This is a woman who kept an ART JOURNAL for so many years, and so 'religiously', that the SMITHSONIAN has accepted that collection of Journals for safekeeping (and hopefully, one day soon, DISPLAY) into perpetuity. Janice will live on through not only the memories of her family and friends and the art community, but via those very journals.

Janice journaling in Scotland (photo borrowed from her blog)

Janice Lowry moved to California from Phoenix Arizona where she attended the Art Center College of Design. It was here that she started doing assembleges, at first as a creative and inexpensive solution for framing. Soon, this solution evolved into an art-form as unique as the artist herself. Janice has also been keeping journals since the age of five. What started as small books with a single lock have turned into creative master pieces over the years. In October of 2007, Janice had the honor of having all of her journals inducted into the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Archives of America in Washington, D.C. Janice works from her gallery in the Artist Village Lofts in Downtown Santa Ana. (this paragraph, from " comment.com ")

A lovely YouTube video clip of Janice and her Studio (which she called "my church") and her art can be seen on Suzi Blu's blog, the link is just below ... I thank artist SUZI BLU for pointing me to Janice Lowry this morning, via Facebook. Suzi also wrote a very heart-filled blog-post about Janice, which you can view here:

http://suziblu.typepad.com/a_lovely_dream/2009/10/dread-making-was-stalled-because-squirrel-maras-daughters-hamster-died-i-have-5-dreads-on-my-head-and-i-look-pretty-stupid.html

Janice in Scotland (again, borrowed from her blog site)

And here is the link to the LA Times obituary for this beautiful woman:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-me-janice-lowry-gothold3-2009oct03,0,7635613.story

Janice having what her husband refers to as "her favorite meal of the day .." !!! EAT DESSERT FIRST: Life can be Short (this photo, too, borrowed from her own blog site)

Loving thoughts to the family and friends of Janice Lowry ... and thanking God that she is now at peace.

-- Princess Magpie