8 CONNECTICUT ILLUSTRATORS • 8 DISTINCTIVE VOICES
This upcoming exhibit celebrates the diverse world of contemporary illustration through the work of eight Connecticut artists. From botanical and food illustration to comics, greeting cards, editorial art, and graphic novels, the exhibition explores the many ways illustration informs, inspires, and tells stories in our everyday lives.
Jo Lynn Alcorn
Amy Casazza
Christy Corey
Kim Burris
Kristy Lankford
Tao Labossiere
Julie Phillipps
Deborah Velasquez
MEET THE ARTISTS
Trained as a printmaker at the Rhode Island School of Design, Jo Lynn Alcorn moved into illustration and design after graduation, beginning her career as an art director at Children’s Television Workshop in New York. She spent the early decades of her career creating intricate 3D cut-paper illustrations for children’s publications before expanding into fashion and cosmetics in 2006. Her work has since been commissioned by major international brands, including Macy’s, Dior, Clinique, Shiseido, Anthropologie, Saks, Bloomingdale’s, Giorgio Armani, Boucheron, and Perrier-Jouët, with representation in the U.S., France, and Japan.
Amy Casazza is a freelance artist and illustrator with a BFA from the University of New Hampshire, where she focused on drawing, painting, and art history, along with additional study at UC Santa Cruz. After graduating, she moved to New York City, working at the Whitney Museum while continuing her painting and graduate art studies. She later became co-owner and curator of AVC Contemporary Arts Gallery in Manhattan. Now based in West Hartford, Connecticut, Casazza creates and exhibits her artwork, licenses her designs, illustrates children’s picture books, and teaches art. Her work is inspired by nature, small moments of beauty, and the human experience.
Christy Corey is an illustrator whose creative process often begins in the pages of her sketchbook, capturing everyday life through watercolor and ink, frequently working en plein air. From cafés and food to bustling city streets, she finds inspiration in the details and character of the world around her. These observations often become the foundation for illustrations created months or even years later. Corey specializes in food and lifestyle illustration for editorial clients, including a recent series of covers for City Lifestyle magazines. Her freelance work also includes custom maps, invitations, branding, and recipe illustrations, allowing her to continually explore new subjects and creative challenges.
Kim Burris is a professional artist whose career began in graphic design and illustration at the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education, where she later served as Executive Director. In 2000, she founded Surface Works, focusing on decorative and mural painting for museums, corporate spaces, residences, and hospital NICU family rooms across the country. In 2023, she completed the Certificate Program in Natural Science Illustration at the Yale Peabody Museum. Working primarily in colored pencil, watercolor, and oil, Burris draws inspiration from the natural world, with a particular fascination for botanical and wildlife subjects and the extraordinary diversity of insects.
Kristy Lankford is an artist, illustrator, and educator with an MFA in Illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a background in studio art from Boston College. She has taught art for more than 18 years in public and private schools in Virginia and Connecticut. Alongside teaching, Lankford works as an artist and illustrator, creating children’s books, editorial illustrations, and fine art paintings. Working primarily in watercolor, acrylic, and mixed media, she brings a love of color and storytelling to her creative practice. Lankford lives with her family in Connecticut’s Farmington Valley, where she continues to find inspiration in her surroundings.
Julie Phillipps discovered her love of art at an early age, studying at the Toledo Museum of Art and learning watercolor from her grandfather. She earned a BA in Art and Theater from Hope College and an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College, where her work with children inspired her to pursue picture books as a way to combine illustration and storytelling. A PEN New England award winner, Phillipps has illustrated and authored several picture books, including Wink: The Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed, Monkey Ono, and The Simples Love a Picnic. She later moved into graphic novels with the Pacey Packer Unicorn Tracker series and her newest middle-grade series, Cabin 13.
A Brooklyn original, Deborah Velasquez is an artist, designer, author, and certified milliner whose creative practice is driven by possibility, accessibility, curiosity, and wonder. Working primarily in gouache—her favorite medium—as well as watercolor and printmaking, she creates paintings, prints, ceramics, cards, textiles, and wearable art. Her work is inspired by nature, travel, art materials, and artists and designers including Paul Klee, Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, Lucienne Day, Maija Isola, and Eva Zeisel. Often accompanied in the studio by the music of Nina Simone, Velasquez approaches art with an enduring sense of curiosity and the belief that determination and creative exploration can inspire others.
Tao LaBossiere (In Memoriam · 2024) was a multidisciplinary artist with more than 25 years of experience and the founder and lead creative of Art of Tao LaBossiere LLC, where he worked alongside his wife, Amy. A graduate of Hartford Art School, he was known for his thoughtful craftsmanship, attention to detail, and wide-ranging creative practice. His murals became recognizable local landmarks, including Hartford’s iconic downtown turtle mural, as well as works at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ and the Asylum Hill Pollinator Garden. For more than two decades, he also co-directed Hartford ArtSpace Gallery as a volunteer, contributing deeply to the local arts community. In 2023, LaBossiere received an Artist Fellowship in Visual Arts from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.