Joan Koester at D.I.D. Office

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Wintery Mix: Paintings by Joan Koester

Art Alliance member Joan Koester is exhibiting her acrylic paintings at the Downtown Improvement District Office January–February. Wintery Mix is a mix of freshness and color for shaking off grey skies.

When you’re downtown near Fraser St., be sure to stop by. Some artworks may be for sale.

Opening Reception

State College First Fridays are canceled for the winter and will not resume until April. Unfortunately, that means there will not be an opening reception but don’t let that stop you from stopping by and admiring her work!

Biography: Joan Koester

From an early age, Joan Koester loved both looking at art and making it. Growing up in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, art exposure was through books, magazines, churches, and trips to the Carnegie Museum.

Koester studied at Penn State University, graduating with a BFA in the Sculpture Option. She studied sculpture under John Cook and Stephen Porter. Cook’s figures evoked metaphor and emotion. Porter emphasized strong, simple forms, perfectly delineated. She feels her paintings owe a debt to sculpture and both instructor’s influences. She communicates emotion using simple, strong figures against a minimal background. Koester also owes a debt to the early influence of Picasso’s gigantic abstract figures.

Most of Koester’s career was in designing marketing materials. She found that design creation was very similar in process and feeling to fine arts creation. She states that as she was designing, her mind’s eye was continually judging the immediate impact on the viewer. In her paintings, she still enjoys dividing space on a flat plane, and creating strong art that impresses the viewer on first contact.

Koester has been actively showing and selling her paintings locally since 2010. She has shown at the Bellefonte Art Museum, Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania, Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, and State College Framing Company and Gallery. She holds numerous awards and her work is in many private collections.

You can learn more about Joan and her artwork on Facebook @JoanKoesterArt.

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