Honoring the Artist: Joanne Rosko

This week's cover artist, Joanne Rosko, is a multi-talented person who brings a varied background to her creations. "Fog Rolling In," an expressionistic view of fog coming across the dunes, validates her work as a plein air artist (and member of the group, Peconic Plein Air), and gives a nod to her career as a perennial landscape designer and a student of children's art. An artist with many interests, Rosko, who has a love of photography, also curates art exhibits (for Southampton Artists Alliance). This background has influenced her art in many intriguing ways.

Q: Your background is wide-ranging. Let's be specific. First, how about your mother's influence on your love of art?

A: I remember my mother giving me and my siblings things to do before dinner so we wouldn't bother her. We could write poetry or sing a song. I drew a picture. Then we would give a performance before dinner.

Q: I can imagine you encouraged your own children when they were growing up.

A: Yes. We went to the beach a lot and worked in the sand. I also encouraged them to set the table in artistic ways; they would have classical music playing and candlelight. I also like to play a lot with my grandchildren and watch how their brains work.

Q: Second, your training in art was a good professional start.

A: I went to Hamilton College and studied art, but I also studied with artists like Diane Maxwell Smith and Miriam Douganis.

Q: When you went back to school and studied early education, was that a turning point?

A: I love children and I love watching them working. I had an epiphany when I experienced that. I learned to play with materials in the art classes.

Q: How did that experience influence your own art?

A: It brought me freedom. I didn't have to paint to perform.

Q: How was your art different as a result of this attitude?

A: Sometimes my art looks a little different, perspective-wise. Sometimes I paint an image in close-up.

Q: How did your career in landscape design influence your art?

A: It made me aware of shapes and colors. And since I worked with flowers, I really love the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. I went to visit her home in New Mexico. She lived so simply. I have great respect for people who live what they believe.

Q: Does your landscape background show up in other ways?

A: I love photography so I take pictures of my garden, sometimes a close-up view, sometimes a whole view.

Q: Are you working on other things, experimenting with other kinds of media or styles?

A: I just finished a landscape that is more modern. It's not abstract but is in that vein. I also broke my back, and I plan on turning my brace into a sculpture, with a drawer where words are spilling out.

Q: This sounds like conceptual art, which is quite a bit different for you. How does this relate to your idea of opposites?

A: I have mixed emotions about using my brace as a sculpture. Strong emotions bring out opposites. Also, it's finding the good in a bad experience. That's using opposites, too.

- Marion Wolberg Weiss

For additional information about Ms. Rosko, go to web.mac.com/joannerosko

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