About the Artist

ABOUT JOAN LOK Short version bio here

Joan Lok is an artist committed to creating artwork as a passage to harmony, diversity and international cultural understanding. Born in Hong Kong, Joan came to America in 1983 after winning an international cultural exchange scholarship sponsored by the Walt Disney World.

Created primarily in the water-medium, sumi-e and ink on rice paper, Joan’s paintings have a delicacy of strokes and color noted for their poetic value. In a tapestry of exquisite lines, shades and colors, Joan captures the spirit of blooming flowers with richness and elegance. Fluent and versatile in her quick sketches, she breathes life into her scenes, and her birds are accessible and appealing. Her calligraphic and economic brushworks positively dance with energy in her figures and portraits. Harmony and serenity permeates her landscapes. Adding a fresh palette to black ink, Joan transforms the ideographs of Chinese characters from mere means of communication to high expression of emotion. Viewers with no understanding of the language are moved by the imagery in her calligraphy. The artist evokes a passionate experience of nature, revealing her feelings through her creation.

Joan has sixteen solo exhibitions in Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland. She exhibits her artwork across the nation and in Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Her artworks have won many awards and are featured in The Best of Flower Painting, and Stroke of Genius 2 by North Light Books, Always Bright-Paintings by Chinese American Artists, Vol. II, the cover of SUMI-E Quarterly, and the jacket artwork of Sakura Celebration.

Joan is honored in Marquis' Who's Who in American Art. She is named one of twelve Artists of the Year in 2000 by New Jersey’s Edison Arts Society. Joan has received awards from many celebrated shows. Her artistic recognition includes the Best of Show of Sumi-e Today, an international joint exhibition of the Sumi-e Society of America and the Sumi-e Artists of Canada, the Grumbacher Gold Medal, the Winsor & Newton Award, the Benefactors of the Sumi-e Society Award, the Blue Heron Award (twice), the Tesshin Sasaki Award (twice), the Chang Dai-Chien Award, the Diana Kan Award, the Mary Schafer Award, the Aiko's Calligraphy Award, the Garden of Edison Award, and the Connecticut Audubon Society’s Best in Watercolor Award. Her masterful landscape won the 2005 National Cherry Blossom Festival Art Contest, enhancing the subways and buses in Washington, DC metropolitan areas, leaving 10 million impressions during four weeks of display, and covering 100,000 copies of festival brochures and 20,000 copies of official program books.

Joan frequently demonstrates her distinctive painting techniques in museums, art associations and schools. In Fall 2008, Joan served as a adjunct faculty member teaching an undergraduate course on Asian American Arts as it relates to personal and community identity at the University of Maryland at College Park. Her media interviews include the cover story of Scholar the Strayer University magazine, the Washington Post, Voice of America, Asian Fortune, Maryland Gazette, Washington Chinese News, World Journal, New Jersey Channel 74, Edison TV, and Baltimore Top of the Morning. She is a popular workshop instructor at Plaza Art in Rockville and Towson, Maryland; and the Learning & Product Art Expo in Chicago, Illinois.

Joan Lok is the longest-serving National President of the Sumi-e Society of America (2002-2012)/ The Society is a 50-year-old art organization with 10 local chapters and over 500 members nationwide, whose mission is to increase awareness, appreciation and understanding of oriental brush painting in America. During her tenure, she pioneered the Society’s first virtual exhibition via the Internet, blending modern technology to advance the understanding of this traditional Asian art form. In 2003 and 2004, the Society received Governor’s Citations from Maryland’s Governor Ehrlich, recognizing the Society’s contribution under Joan's leadership. Joan is also the Past Vice President of the Lingnam Art Association of America, and member of the Association of Chinese Calligraphy in America. Joan is a Signature Member of both the Baltimore Watercolor Society and the Potomac Valley Watercolorists.

Besides her artistic career, Joan Lok is a community development professional with a federal financial regulatory agency. She has the ability to inspire at the grass root level the creativity and commitment for community development. She spearheaded the creation of the Baltimore Alliance for Economic Inclusion small Dollar Loan Program, the first small dollar loan pool of its kind in the nation. Committed to financial education, Joan founded the Maryland Save's Roll in the Dough Savings Campaign, and led the Financial Service Committee of Maryland Saves. She served in the Advisory Council of the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy; the Planning Committee of Money Power Day, part of the Creating Assets, Savings and Hope (CASH) Campaign in Baltimore City; and the Planning Committee of Maryland Financial Education Week. Joan was also a founding member of the Build Your Money Capital Region Coalition in Albany, New York.

Joan Lok is the Translation Manager of the Chinese version of Money Smart, an adult financial literacy education curriculum. In 2003, Joan and her team received the prestigious Service to America Medal, and she was honored as the Employee of the Year by her agency. In 2006, Joan served as the Lead Research and Developer of "Navigating the Road to Housing Recovery, a Step-by-Step Guide for Families Affected by the Gulf Coast Hurricanes". She established the Alliance for Economic Inclusion in Baltimore City, Maryland, and currently leads its Borrow and Save small dollar loan program to combat payday lending.

Joan Lok received a gubernatorial appointment to serve as a Commissioner of the Maryland Governor’s Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs in 2003. She chaired the Business, Finance and Economic Development Committee of the Commission. In 2004 and 2007, Joan received two Governor’s Citations for Outstanding Community Service from the State of Maryland. She is listed in the reputable Marquis Who’s Who of American Women, Who's Who in Business and Finance, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World, for her significant contribution to the betterment of contemporary society.

Joan Lok holds a Master of Business Administration with honor from the Strayer University, and is a Magna Cum Laude graduate in Business Administration and Marketing of the Bernard M. Baruch College in New York. She also holds a degree in Hotel and Tourism Management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and studied at the Hong Kong School of Fine Arts. Joan studied Lingnam Brush Painting with Fong-Yuen Ng and Chit-Seng Lam, Portraits with Zhen Guo Tong, and Landscapes with Wan Fung Shum. She has also attended many workshops with great artists including Cheng-Khee Chee, Diana Kan, Lok Tok, Shozo Sato, Tesshin Sasaki, He Jun Zhuo, Carol Carter, Frank Webb, and Skip Lawrence. Joan Lok operates the Radiant Brush Gallery www.radiantbrush.com and www.joanlok.com, and creates artworks from her studio in Columbia, Maryland.

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All artworks and materials in this web site are protected under United States copyright laws and international treaties. No part of the contents may be reproduced, stored, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, without limitation, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior express written permission of Joan Lok. Please contact Joan for permission to use any artworks and materials in this web site.