I started out drawing portraits in pencil for school mates. I studied graphic design in art school in New York, and went on the become an art director in an ad agency in San Francisco in ’65.
Then the 60s hit, and it was smoke a lot of pot and don’t-tie-me-down! Off to Big Sur I went with my insanely heavy backpack, where I took took lots of acid and hung out with the Grateful Dead.
I started painting around that time; eventually I and my BF moved to a small place in Santa Cruz, where we started making pottery.
Making pots lasted around 20 years. My first pots were very coarse stoneware – no great shakes. But I persisted. Over years of refining and honing better and better skills, I ended up making high-fired (3000 degrees) porcelain with very fine hand-drawn designs.
I invented a few processes that allowed me to get a translucent, high-fired matt glaze – almost impossible, they said! But I did it. I also invented a way to do underglaze stains that didn’t run under the over-glaze. (Also impossible!)
In ’82, I was in a horrible car accident. My beautiful Volvo station wagon was totalled – as was I. They said I’d never walk again. Fooey on that – within 6 weeks of seeing a special doc, I was on my feet running. I was supposed to raise two little boys without being able to walk? I don’t think so! I don’t think much of what ‘they’ say, I guess.
It was at that time that a friend introduced me to stone. Love at first sight. I’m still in love. Stone is the best medium yet for the simple, roundified forms I like to make.
And wouldn’t you know it? I never thought anything could snatch me away from stone, but suddenly, years later in October of ’17, I found myself going wild about watercolors. Color just reaches in and grabs me by the guts – in 2018 I fell for bright, gem-colored chalk pastels, and did a whole huge series of funky critters.
In 2021, I dove into surface pattern design, and over the nest 2 years, created more than 2500 designs for fabric, wallpaper, tiles, and other flat applications of repeat designs. Now, at this writing, it’s 2023, and I’m doing tons of digital drawings, with all the wild color I could possibly want.
I can’t seem to keep from dipping my fingers into all sorts of pies. I love to write, so I started writing books completely by accident. Since then, I’ve written and compiled over 50 of my own books, and design and publish books for other authors, as well. You can see many of them at AngelaTreatLyonBOOKS.com.
I have many of my best books for free and for very inexpensive prices (like 5 bucks) at atlyon.gumroad.com. I know – weird name. But so what? It’s great to have my books laid out so nicely there. My latest books, The Inside Secrets, Volumes I – VII, are all there as ebooks, and on amazon in print.
You can see the many different types of stone sculpture I’ve done at AngelaTreatLyonART.com. There’s a whole lot of my other work, too – mandalas, pastels, books, both at that site, and at LyonArtandDesign.com.
CONTACT ME!
Let me know if you have any questions about my artwork, if you’d like to purchase or commission something, or collaborate with licensing or wholesaling.