About the Artist

The 2001 National Hispana Leadership Institute's Mujer Award Gala commemorative poster features an oil painting entitled “Cariño Maternal ” by Irene Carranza.

Irene Carranza was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and has lived there her entire life. Her parents immigrated from Jalisco, Mexico in the 1950s and raised eight children, with Irene as the eldest of six girls. After graduation from a Catholic girlsÕ high school in Pasadena, she attended Long Beach State University where she majored in art until she won a scholarship for Art Center College of Design. Though she did not graduate from there, she embarked on a career as a graphic designer and art director. In 1995, she decided to reenter the fine art world and trained as an art instructor. As she was making plans to open an art school in Northern California, she displayed her drawings and paintings (with much trepidation since she had kept her art work to herself!) at an Art Fair at Self Help Graphics and Art Inc. in Los Angeles, and the rest is history, you might say since the response from the public was very enthusiastic. This led to her immediate decision to cancel the art school venture and happily pursue the life of a visual artist. As you can see, dreams can and do come true and Irene continues to exhibit extensively in Southern California, as well as other states. She is influenced by the Mexican painters, including Orozco and Rivera, as well as Matisse, Georgia OÕKeefe and Chagall.

She was recently the honored artist at the annual MALDEF awards ceremony with MexicoÕs President-elect Vicente Fox as the guest speaker. Lithographs of her painting ÒEverlasting BondÓ were awarded to the honorees. Her work was also featured as People in Espa–ol magazineÕs Christmas cards for December 2000, and she will appear in an article for the magazine in May 2000.

For more information on Irene Carranza visit her website at, www.irenecarranza.com.