Joan Otis

Born in 1935, Otis received her Bachelor's Degree from Michigan State University and a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Michigan. She traveled extensively throughout the world, collecting arts and crafts from each nation she visited. Besides having an appreciation for cultural events, she relished sea kayaking, diving, biking, horticulture, and her vacation home in Cudjoe Key, Florida. She was a member of The Ann Arbor Potter's Guild, The Ella Sharp Museum, Delta Kappa Gamma Women's Educational Sorority, The Michigan Art Education Association, and the National Art Education Association. She was a prolific artist. Her work was widely exhibited, received many awards and is in numerous private collections, as well as in The Ella Sharp Museum of Jackson and the MEA Headquarters in Lansing. Her work was dominated by whimsical and intricately detailed depictions of her favorite themes, flora and fauna. Some of her most complex pieces were expressions of fantasy like dragons, lions, amphibians, as well as children, childhood themes, and domestic animals in their many natural poses. Her artistic talents also extended to landscaping. In 2000 she was awarded the Golden Trowel Award from the city of Ann Arbor.