Jo-Ann Lizio
(b. 1944)
American
Born: Peekskill, New York, USA
Jo-Ann Lizio, fine artist, art therapist and art educator, was born in Peekskill, N.Y., and now resides in Naples, Florida. Classically trained, she received a bachelor’s degree in art education from the State University College at Buffalo in 1966 and her master’s in therapeutic techniques of art education in 1975 from the College of New Rochelle, where she subsequently served for 12 years as chair of the School of Arts and Sciences Arts Department, assistant professor of art and the supervisor of art student teachers. She has also served as an art consultant at a school for the learning disabled and as a registered art therapist in private practice.
She is the former education coordinator at The von Liebig Art Center and the coordinator of visual arts for the Renaissance Academy of Florida Gulf Coast University. Her work is exhibited in galleries in New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Florida, as well as in museum and international private collections
The artist says flight has always been essential to her work. As an undergraduate, Ms. Lizio analyzed Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings exploring the phenomenon of flight and how a combination of art and air travel can set imaginations free. In 1986, she traveled to Japan on a faculty development grant that resulted in a two-person exhibition at the Kaji Aso Studio in Boston and a solo show at the College of New Rochelle. The images of the compositional abstractions were exclusively about birds and the exploration of flight. One of the pieces in the exhibition was selected for the Purchase Prize and is now a part of the college’s permanent collection.