Teresa Ascone, lifelong Alaskan, portrays her impressions of her beloved homeland in a distinctive, romanticized style that captures the rugged beauty of the northern landscape and the colorful wonder of its flowers. Ascone images have appeared on the covers of Alaska Horizons, Arctic Horizons and Marine Highway News, Alaska Wellness Magazine, Alaska Women Speak Magazine, and UAA's 1997 Summer Sessions Course Catalog. Corporate clients include KTUU Channel 2, the Northway Mall, the Mall at Sears, The Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, and the Anchorage Sister Cities Commission. Original paintings have been sent to Korea, England, and Russia as official gifts from the Municipality of Anchorage. In 1995 Teresa illustrated Things in the Sky, a textbook portraying various elements of nature as seen in the Arctic. She also designed holiday note cards for the Anchorage Police Department 2001 through 2005. An award-winning PBS-produced video, Landscapes of the Imagination-The Art of Teresa Ascone, honored her in 1988.
Teresa taught art techniques for more than twenty-five years, traveling throughout Alaska for the University of Alaska. Her teaching led to a step-by-step learning method using her book, We're All Artists: Watercolor for Everyone, and The Ultimate Palette, for which she holds a design patent. A second book of watercolor lessons, Painting Pleasure: Adventures in Watercolor, was published later. In 1998, Teresa created UAA’s Ultimate Watercolor Academy for adults who wanted to learn watercolor in a safe, non-threatening atmosphere - a hallmark of her teaching style. The success of the academy and its student art show resulted in her nomination for the UAA 2000 Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Teresa’s memberships include the prestigious Athena Society and she is profiled in Who’s Who in American Women. She was one of nine Alaskan women honored as Readers during the YWCA Women’s Readings Celebration in 1995.
Community Contributions: Since 1980, Teresa has volunteered her time and artwork to numerous non-profits and public entities. For the past 30 years, she has not only donated many works of art but has served on-air as color commentator and auctioneer on behalf of KAKM Public Television’s annual art auction. She was one of five artists chosen to create a work of art on-air for KAKM’s 10th Anniversary Auction. Over the years, she donated the use of three original works to be reproduced for premium rewards during KAKM’s membership drives. Teresa’s original watercolor, Lavender Green, Lavender Blue, was reproduced as a fundraiser during the 1992 Anchor Arts celebration for the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts. Two of her pieces were reproduced as fundraising prints for Mabel T. Caverly Senior Center and her watercolor, Sunday Drive, was made into posters for the 1988 Alaska Women’s Run.
In October, 1988, the Alaska Women’s Resource Center reproduced her watercolor, New Beginnings, for a fundraiser. That event was transformed into an exciting occasion when two political luminaries, Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisolm, who happened to be in Anchorage to speak at a conference for working women, agreed to sign 100 of the prints, which swiftly sold at a considerably higher premium and raised nearly $10,000 extra for the center.
Teresa’s work is included in the Alaska Pacific University Permanent Collection. Her watercolor, Sunlit Rocks, McHugh Creek, was chosen to be included in the First National Bank of Anchorage 1990 calendar.
Early in her career, Teresa entered juried shows and garnered some awards:
1979 Alaska State Fair, Second Place, Pastel
1979 Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, Honorable Mention, Pastel
1980 Alaska State Fair, First Place, Pastel
1983 Arts and Flowers Juried Show, Third Place, Watercolor
1988 Alaska Watercolor Society Juried Show, June Fullingim Memorial Award
1989 Watercolor Fairbanks, Third Place, Watercolor
1991 Alaska Watercolor Society Juried Show, Honorable Mention
Lately, Teresa’s artwork has taken a whimsical turn with her book, The Berry Fairies of Alaska. A second berry fairy tale, Book 2 ~ Lizzie Scarlet, which received the December 2010 Reviewer's Choice Award at Children's Bookwatch, follows the adventures of the Alaska berry fairies. She maintains her studio in the Matanuska Valley, where she paints, writes new berry fairy stories, and practices her passion: wheel thrown pottery. She recently sailed on a cruise ship, teaching watercolor and enjoying the spectacular, rugged landscape of the Inside Passage.
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