Prior to founding VivyLand
in 2001, Jan Oswald was one of the Rocky Mountain
Region's top advertising photographers, specializing in still life photography
for a
variety of clients ranging from Boston Chicken to The Junior League of Denver
(publisher of best selling Colorado Collage cookbook). She won over a hundred
awards in local as well as national competitions.
In 1994 she acquired Vivy
and a whole new world opened for her. She took Vivy
everywhere, and observed her unique character, her humor, her cheery disposition,
her courage, and of course her tenacity and stubbornness! She started doing
photographs of Vivy at her studio during those 'slow times' between jobs.
Their first success
was card #001 angels
, completed
in l995 when
Vivy was only a year old. It was a parody of the then ubiquitous Raphael
puti painting.
Then came the Gargoyle, "009 
because
Vivy can look like one, and
Jan had received several gifts of gargoyle statues.
It snowballed from there.
And it has been a real labor of love. Jan's intent is to
capture the unique character and personality of the bulldog breed as expressed
through Vivy.
In addition to creating
VivyLand images, she exhibits her fine art work in local
and national galleries. She was honored with a solo exhibition at the International
Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 2001, and has received recognition
as
a Kodak sponsored photographer.
In conjunction with
Vivy, they received the "Best of Colorado" at the Art Show
at the Dog Show in 1999, a popular dog art venue in Kansas City.
In service to the community, Jan has served as president of the Denver chapter
of the ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers). Educated at the
University of California at Berkeley and at Brooks Institute of Photography,
she has taught courses in Advanced Lighting and Photographic Design at the
Art Institute of Colorado, and has given several lectures and workshops
on her
photography.
She and Vivy reside in Denver, Colorado.
What people say about Jan's work:
- Jan "has by
far the most impressive photography show I have ever seen.
If you never have seen photographers who use technique to create
emotionally impressive photographs, now you can."
Dr. Paul Denny Jr, DFA,"Art in Review" Enid News an& Eagle May 25, 2001 - "Prominent Denver
artist-photographer Jan Oswald is . . . creating some of
the most thought-provoking still-life photographic studies ever to appear in
Rocky Mountain art galleries." From the Professionals, Kodak
ProPassport,1993
To see Jan's artwork, visit her website at www.janoswald.com
