Jaylene Armstrong -  jaylene@ca-productions.com
Art Advocate, Artist & Instructor
An "IDEA" person who promotes, pursues,  researches and works tirelessly to make art important in the lives of  people and the community.

A long time ago a dear friend of mine said to me, "Jaylene , there are two things that I know you love - your son Cort, and Art." YES indeed this was very true and has never changed. It would take several articles to chronicle all of my adventures involving my son and visual art.

Let's begin by telling you I migrated to Santa Clarita, CA from Madison, Wisconsin.  As I reflect on my life there are dates I remember with fondness: the birth of my son, my marriage to an Art Professor, living in Rangoon, Burma, (Myanmar), my first teaching job that lasted 26 years, being elected to the National Art Education Association Board in Washington, DC. as a Vice President,  sitting on the board of the Wisconsin Art Education Association as President for two years and developing the first Summer National Art Education Summer Conference held in 1980, creating the first "Youth Art Month Art Exhibit" at the capital in Madison (with the Governor presiding), my trip to Europe and seeing the beautiful Michelangelo's "DAVID " in Florence, and the "PIETA" in Rome.

I retired in 1992 and I had over 30 student art teachers during the 26 years work with me in learning how to teach art professionally. I wrote many state and local grants for my school. One exciting highpoint was winning a National Office of Education Grant (in Washington D.C.) $10,000 dollars for my school to bring in visiting artists to perform for the students. 

I joined the SCAA  to help bring more awareness of the visual arts to the community, and in 2006 succeeded in receiving a Santa Clarita Community Grant to teach After School Art Enrichment Classes to 45 children in the Newhall School District. A great experience. I also chaired the SCAA 2006 Art Classic - with many good volunteers.

David Hockney's "Collage Photography" caught my eye and I entered my first photo collage "Catch Me If You Can" (right) in the 2007 Art Classic and won an award. The photos are of spiral stair steps  I had photographed in a building in  Chicago, and the lobster traps are from a trip I  made to Martha's vineyards.  I began placing these different photo shapes together and then adding other linear shapes.  I never knew how this would turn out when I started but I knew when to stop.

I began working with chalk pastels after I moved to California. I took an art class on different painting techniques while living in Marin and the instructor showed pictures by American pastel  painter Wolf  Kahn. WOW! was I impressed and I  bought his book and pastels and began to create. Kahn paints abstract landscapes with wild FAUVE  colors of  pink, orange, purple and  red trees.  All the colors I love, and I love to draw trees so  my pastels are always of trees and landscapes in either diptych  or triptych compositions. "Can You Imagine"
(pastel, left)

A major part of my creative time is creating 'HIGH END JEWELRY' with semi-precious stones from different cultures around the world. Each piece is "One-of- a- Kind."  I exhibit and sell my jewelry here in Southern California Art Festivals.  I love the Malibu Art Festival.
The Red Cinnabar beads (right) are from China.  They  are made from  layers of lacquer. Using silver beads with the round carved cinnabar makes a strong Museum Gallery like design which is what I strive for  in my jewelry.  You can see more of my jewelry by visiting http://www.ca-productions.com/jc/

Art is a human experience that is so easily overlooked and not appreciated. In spite of the fact we all use many components of art everyday in our lives.  Few people recognize , understand or appreciate the elements of art and design that surround us.  It takes much time to become aware of the History of Art and learn how art has prevailed in all civilizations as a record of human accomplishments. Yes indeed, I am a strong Art Advocate... can you tell?

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