Joan K. Shaver: CREATING A PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN DOWER CHEST.....in progress

Friday, August 16, 2013

CREATING A PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN DOWER CHEST.....in progress

Blanket Chest is Mennonite crafted by Howard Knicely of Harrisonburg, Virginia

An Artist's kitchen......

Distlefink Hex Sign

Flowers of Ephrata Cloister, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Today was all about the DETAILS.

Joan K. Shaver

Welcome to my Blog Site!
I am a Virginia artist from Dayton-specializing in the style of the Pennsylvania Germans.

My art work reflects my Shenandoah Valley heritage or as our Lancaster cousins refer to us-Valley Deutsch.

I love all the arts of the early PA Germans but my favorite are the Frakturs. Fraktur is a folk art form practiced by Pennsylvania Germans principally from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The name derives from that of a distinctive German script marked by "fractured" pen strokes and the form has clear roots in European folk culture. Fraktur blossomed into a uniquely rich, colorful and iconographic form of expression in the United States, tied to rites of social life.

I have a degree in Fine Arts from VCU and worked as a graphic artist and TV video editor. I use all the tools of both disciplines to create my art. No surface is out of bounds for me-from my distressed hand made paper to blanket chests--and anything in between. One of my favorite surfaces is antique coffee pots. I have done art shows throughout the state and displayed in galleries for the past 20 years.

I also paint local scenes and folks of the Valley.