Joanna Carrabbio, originally from Michigan, earned a BFA from Wayne
State University, Detroit, Michigan in 1973 in painting and drawing.
WSU’s art faculty, Mary Jane Bigler, John Egner, Tom Parrish and
Robert Wilbert infused the love of painting and drawing and visual
communication into her life, especially, through the mediums of oil and
watercolor painting. A visiting artists program at Wayne State University
acquainted her with artists Jennifer Bartlett, Elizabeth Murray and
Michael Goldberg who instilled the importance of originality and the
power of art that enables us to make the kind of leap of imagination that
frees your mind.
After graduation and travel she relocated to Los Angeles, California.
She obtained teaching credentials from UCLA and California State
University, Dominguez Hills. She successfully taught drawing, painting,
sculpture and advanced placement art for the Los Angeles Unified
School District for 27 years. During this period she also did free-lance
work as a fine and graphic artist with mural commissions for EMI-Capitol
Records and the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. A drawing of
hers was included in "Drawings USA", Minnesota Museum of Art, St.
Paul Minnesota. She has been published in several books on murals,
“Painting the Towns”, “Street Gallery” both by Robin Dunitz. And “The
Foot of the Wall” and “The Secret of Scratchboard” both by Marco
Elliott, published in Paris, France by LTA. Recently, (2014), Marco
Elliott and Joanna Carrabbio were credited in a Los Angeles Museum of
Art exhibition “Edward Biberman, Abbott Kinney and the Story of
Venice”.
After living in Los Angeles for 35 years, in 2009, she and her family
relocated to Eugene, Oregon. She lives with her husband, Marco Elliott
who is also an artist and an author. They have a grown daughter, Chloe
Elliott, who attends the University of Oregon.