Joan is an artist and Occupational Therapist for Brookdale Senior Living.  She has had a life long interest and participation in visual art and in 2001 completed a B.F.A. in painting and sculpture at the University of Central Missouri. Her works are in a variety of two and three dimensional media.

Joan has been touched in her personal life by cancer, having lost both of her parents to it at a relatively young age. In completing the art piece for the auction, she was inspired by the relationship of our physical bodies and the astronomical bodies that make up our universe. Accordingly, the sun is depicted on the front as the ultimate life giving force for those of us living on the planet earth. The gradations of the blue background correspond to the peaceful blues of the skies and the oceans. The pink rhinestones of the interior add some sparkle (like stars), and also – pink for breast cancer awareness.