Synthia SAINT JAMES will unveil her 40x30” original acrylic on canvas painting “Circle of Promise” at a very special luncheon to be held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. on Friday, June 6, 2008. The painting was commissioned by Susan G. Komen for the Cure in celebration of Circle of Promise, the Cure program dedicated to re-writing the story on breast cancer in the African American community. The limited edition fine art reproductions of “Circle of Promise” will also be presented and will be available for purchase at the luncheon, which will be co-hosted by The Links, Incorporated. All the event proceeds will help fund the breast health needs of the 9th Ward Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana and Ghana Hospital in Ghana, Africa. Synthia SAINT JAMES has been a Premiere Portfolio Artist at absolutearts.com since 2001.
SAINT JAMES, who now serves as a National Ambassador for Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, is a international award winning artist and the designer of the first United States Postal Stamp for the Kwanzaa holiday. She has to date written and or illustrated 13 children’s picture books, 3 poetry and prose books, 4 children’s activity books, a cookbook, and a postcard book. She has garnered numerous awards including a Parent’s Choice Silver Honor for her book Sunday, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for illustrating Neeny Coming…Neeny Going, and an Oppenheim Gold Award for the book To Dinner For Dinner, which she illustrated.
Her architectural designs include a 150 foot ceramic tile mural for Ontario, California’s international airport, 6 - 9x4 foot elevator doors for a building in California’s State Capitol’s East End Complex, Sacramento, California, stained glass windows for the West Tampa Library in Tampa, Florida, and a 4x7 foot ceramic tile mural (inspired by Dr. Maya Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of Morning”), commissioned by Gibson, Dunn, Crutcher LLP for Cowan Elementary School in Westchester, California. She was also commissioned to create the 3x6 foot painting that hangs in the Womens Center of Glendale Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California.
SAINT JAMES has completed numerous commissioned signature images for non-profit organizations including the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters (which hangs at the Vulcan Station in Brooklyn, New York), Children’s Institute International, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, the Harlem Book Fair, the United Way, and the National Education Association. She unveiled the poster that she created for the Center for Disease Control at the United Nations on World AIDS Day 2005, unveiled the original painting that she created for the Metropolitan AME Church (Harlem, NY) at the Schomburg in February 2006, and unveiled the 20th anniversary painting for the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. in June 2006.
Her paintings grace the covers of over 60 books, including Terry McMillan’s Waiting to Exhale, Disappearing Acts, Mama, and the Japanese translation of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Iyanla Vanzant’s Acts of Faith, Faith in the Valley and The Big Book of Faith.
In reviews her artwork has been described as “ebullient”, “bold”, “creates paintings that remind one of Matisse cutouts in their clear line and intense color” and “joyful”.
She was honored with the 2008 Woman of the Year for California’s 26th Senate district, a 2004 Woman of the Year Award in Education by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women and she is a proud receipient of The HistoryMakers Award. Fall of 2006 she received both the MOSTE Inspirational Women Award and the Samella Award for her artistry, and designed the We See You Award. SAINT JAMES is also one of the women included in Dr. Cynthia Jacobs Carter’s National Geographic book, Africana Woman: Her Story Through Time.
She most recently completed signature paintings for the 10th anniversary of the African American Business Summit, the inaugural painting for the Leimert Park Village Book Festival, for Project Fatherhood for Children’s Institute International. On June 21, 2007 she was honored by the Home Depot Charitable Foundation with a tribute held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
She travels nationally for speaking engagements, exhibitions and unveilings.
SAINT JAMES, a self-taught artist, credits the creator and her ancestry (which includes African American, Native American, Haitian and German Jew) for her artistic gifts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SUSAN G. KOMEN FOR THE CURE:
http://www.komen.org
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CIRCLE OF PROMISE:
http://www.circleofpromise.org
View more of Synthia SAINT JAMES works in her Premiere Portfolio http://www.absolutearts.com/kikus
IMAGE
Artist: Synthia Saint James
Title: Tchokola
Year Created: 2007
Medium: Reproduction
Width: 44 inches
Height: 27 inches
Edition Size: 90
Price: US$ 1100
Purchase online or by phone
Related Links:
