Josie Grant, MFA

Josie is new to Benicia- She is inspired by Nature & her world travels, where she sketches and paints.

As a Bay Area Visionary Artist, Symbolism is brought into these images.  She teaches Color Theory & Drawing to UC Extension Interior Design candidates. For 35 years she taught painting and drawing for Marin Community Education. She created her own mural and decorative arts business - and her large public murals can be seen in SF Chinatown, and the George Mark Children’sHouse has many of her childrens’ murals.

She received her BFA & MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972  and began her first mural  legendary Keystone Korner  Jazz Klub, and for the SF Art Commission CETA public Art Mural program.

Her Visionary Art oil paintings have been reproduced as posters and distributed internationally, and her paintings have been exhibited internationally in Asia representing California Visionary Artists. An Artist with a 58-year exhibition record, she is listed in Who's Who of Women Professional Artists & Thomas Albrights Bay Area Artists, and Illustrated books for Poet Diane DiPrima as well as for children.

The MANDALA is a mystical and meditative tool used in Tibetan Buddhism. It represents the Elements of the Earth; in the many forms it can be manipulated into. For 30 years  she licensed Artists for the Street Artist program for the SF Art Commission. Here she worked with her partner, ZB Doros, with the beadwork, added to his delicate wire work to create these magical Wire Toy Mandala’s.