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Lorene Ireland
From La Jolla to the Louvre
by
Joel D. Amos
Since she
Lorene Ireland has been fascinated with art, all kinds of art.
At eight years old, she would awake at the crack of dawn to work
on her clay creations. This was just the beginning for her. She
could see a painting in everything. At the age of 15, she traveled
with her parents to Europe. Her mother, an artist, made sure they
saw everything relating to art. Lorene can remember visiting the
Louvre and staring at Venus De Milo and Mona Lisa. This was back
when only a red rope protected her, so Lorene actually touched
this work of art. She was so mesmerized by the magnitude of the
art in museums, galleries, castles, and the architecture, that
she knew she wanted to become an artist.
Painting for
her became her purpose, her life's journey, a canvas journal of
where she had been and what she had done. In this way she was
always evolving, changing, learning new things, and new techniques.
It never stops for her, as it is all about the process and the
constant forward momentum that matters to her. She enjoys painting
her favorite places, all the cities and countries she has traveled
to, and she has more than 1000 photographs of places and people
she would love to eventually transform into works of art.
Her newest
focus of her art journey is on her three-dimensional mosaic women,
Isabel and Celine. She has been making her mosaic dolls for several
years, but she admits that Isabel and Celine are her favorites.
To make them, she started with the design of the faces. This sets
the tone for the entire piece. Each face is hand painted and embellished
right down to the eyelashes. The head tresses are a combination
of hand beading with shells and pearls to represent the flowing
of long hair. She felt to capture the spirit and essence of each
figure was through their expressions and adornment on there heads.
She fashioned their bodies into the drawers based on the mood
of their faces, which can make the art much more complicated.
As an artist,
Lorene has gone to great lengths to embellish Isabel with sea
shells and pearls. Isabel is high fashion and sophisticated, a
symbol of femininity and the beauty of the female figure. So her
bodice and drawers had to be very elegant. Lorene used pearls
and beads with the application of fabulous shells from all over
the world. Most of the shells are nautilus, white pearl turbo,
scallops, Mexican deeps, scallops (she personally collected from
Nantucket Island), umbonium, African turbo and very tiny, tiny
sea shells her grandmother collected off the coast of Florida.
Every aspect of Isabel is intriguing. The elegant facets of the
design are happening all over her, from head to toe.
Celine is
more in repose, contemplating, and with a more subtle elegance
and adorned with the finest of china. People are often shocked
when Lorene tells them that she cut precious dishes into tiny
little mosaic pieces. But the shock goes away when they see how
she has reconstructed these wonderful dishes back into unique,
intricate new designs. This adds even more to Celine's charm and
finesse.
Lorene's
work has been featured on the cover of South Coast Magazine, The
Carlsbad Flower Fields Guide, at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort,
in Simic Galleries, and has been acquired by numerous art collectors.
During her
workshops, Lorene Ireland not only shows how to construct a work
of art, but with her energetic and enthusiastic personality and
her great verbal communication skills, she inspires her students
to express themselves to their fullest potential.
"I have had
a passion for fine art for as long as I can remember," said Ireland,
who has a degree in graphic arts and design from Central Michigan
University. She also has studied advertising, sculpture and ceramics.
Additionally,
her talents include designing mosaics, illustrating for magazines
and book publishers, writing editorials as well as selling and
promoting art. For four years she has illustrated the cover of
The Flower Fields Guide with rich colors of the ranunculus blooms.
Lorene Ireland
P.O. Box 1766
La Jolla, California 92038
www.lajollastudioworkshops.com
lorene@lajollastudioworkshops.com
619 708-1704
Featured
in South Coast Magazine Spring 2006
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