ABOUT

Joan's Story

Joan Christiansen Bonetti was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. When she was 3 years old her paternal grandparents moved from Denmark to Santa Barbara, California after her grandfather's good friend (a successful artist) convinced them that America was indeed the land of endless opportunity. The following year Joan's parents and brother followed and settled in a small Santa Barbara suburb.

Joan's grandfather, Edmund, was an aspiring artist who studied all his favorites by copying and surrounding his home with the studies, careful never to sign his name to them...they were just studies. Joan remembers the first time she saw a Van Gogh painting in a school book and was excited that her grandfather's work was so famous. Over time she realized the work for what it was, but was grateful that the beauty of those studies were imprinted in her upbringing. Today, she claims her favorite possessions are the originals painted by her grandfather hanging in her home.

Living in Santa Barbara County most of her youth, she moved away to college and received her BFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Riverside in 1984. Keeping an active studio while raising a family was an impractical dream and so Joan focused her attention on less messy endeavors. For the next 25 years Joan enjoyed a career as a graphic designer, managing to grow in the field as the family moved to San Diego.

In 2005, with her family grown and less dependent on her time, Joan was craving paint under her fingernails. She put aside the computer mouse for the paintbrush, and started her business doing murals. This lead to decorative painting, then cabinet and furniture refinishing, for which she holds an active California State Contractors License. All the while, painting commissions started to roll in. Her joy today is when a client presents her with a vision, revealing their inner-most passions, and ask her to collaborate with them on that vision.