About the artist
Gloria Todd Jones was born in 1953 in Jackson,
Alabama. She started painting early in her childhood. After graduating from
High school she left the south and attended college in California and
eventually made it her home. She met her husband, a native Californian, and
continued to study art in earnest while traveling extensively with him and
their baby daughter.
Together the "trio" spent 16 months traveling in
and out of 16 different countries.
In Mexico, Ms. Jones was influenced by the works of
Diego Rivera. In Italy, she immersed herself in the classics. She received
her B.A. degree in Fine Art through the California State University in
Florence, Italy.
In 1982 she spent several weeks in the Soviet
Union, Europe and parts of Africa studying that countries fine art.
In 1987 she lived and worked in a 16th
century farmhouse in Monte Porzi Catone outside of Rome, Italy. In the next
several years she would work exclusively from sketches and photographs of
her travel, from which several limited edition prints, fine art posters, and
decorative ceramic art tiles are being marketed. After which a signature
line of gift bags, and her greeting card line produced for Hallmark Cards,
Inc. are created, and the non-stop need to promote these pieces would
continue for several years to come.
In 1995 her work was featured on "Making It"
Minority Success stories produced by KTLA in Los Angeles. From the
success of this show Jones' determination was to create original works only
for a select group of discriminating collectors.
In 1997 she received the Summit Award, and a
historical state pin from the Mayor of her hometown to honor her for charity
work and the artistic contributions she has made in the art world.
In 2003 she spent three years on the beautiful
Hawaiian Island of Oahu, capturing the genre setting of island life as seen
through the eyes of a tourist painter.
Jones work has been featured in shows (just to name
a few) in Florence, Italy; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; California, New
York, Chicago, New Orleans, Tokyo, Japan; Brisbane, Australia; and Honolulu,
Hawaii.
Her collectors range from billionaire
industrialists, to some of the most celebrated names in show business,
prominent business professionals, educators, and many notable personalities
of diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.
Her art pieces together form a kind of a journal of
her life so that her viewer/collector becomes immersed in it and is left
with an undeniable sense of familiarity.
