Bio & Artist Statement
Greetings!
Thank you so much for stopping by, I appreciate you taking the time to visit my website. I am an interdisciplinary visual artist. If you have any questions or need further information about my art, feel free to reach out via email at janellmithani@gmail.com. You can read my artist statement and bio below. Click on CV and Recent Press to take you directly to those pages or use the drop down menu above.
Have a wonderful, creative, day filled with joy! –Janell
Artist Statement
As an interdisciplinary artist, I focus on incorporating a profound multicultural and historical aesthetic, and an ecofeminist spirit within my art. Using paint, pastel, repurposed materials, canvas, and wood, I create art that revolves around women, children, and our natural environment. Recently, I have explored a more textualized and sculptural relief, conveying the inner
feminist universal and spiritual awareness of women through time and space. I explore visual storytelling and work in series. I am currently working on two series.
“Dresses, Reflections of Past and Present” reflecting my complex thoughts on gender equality, women’s roles, past and present; and how women’s health and rights are evolving throughout my lifespan.
“Wildish Spirits” series where I explore a world of radiant enchantment merged with the lush details of the forest, reflecting on a childhood spent in the Northwestern US forests as my playground.
Biography
Janell Mithani grew up in a small rural town in the northwestern United States, the youngest in a family of strong women who loved gardening, music, and the great outdoors. As a teen she sold her violin to buy her first camera and took painting lessons from a local artist. She received a BFA from Southern Oregon State College (now SOU) and re-located to Los Angeles after graduating. Shortly after arriving in Southern California, she met her husband and they made their home in a small town located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains where she still lives today, creating art in her garden studio.
Her love for the intimacy of the human face drew her to portraiture early on in her career. Mithani began her artist career creating commissioned portraits in photography, pastels, oils, and acrylics, eventually focusing on intimate pregnancy and newborn portraits, publishing a book in 2011. In 2004, Janell began splitting her studio time between fine art paintings, commissions, and teaching art workshops to teens. Teaching manga art to teens was inspirational in developing the stylistic, ecofeminist characters of her “Wildish Spirits” series. In 2014, creating fine art became the focus of her studio practice.
A childhood spent exploring the wonders of the forest began a long-time love and respect for our natural environment and its resources. Her “Wildish Spirits” series contrasts stylized, surrealistic, renditions of women in nature, with large expressive eyes, and whimsical fantastical elements, bringing a sense of wonder to her contemporary art. Mithani is broadly interested in the way humans and nature intersect and connect, which she conveys through a sense of curiosity and symbolism that embraces the deep connection she has with nature.
Mithani is a multidisciplinary artist who works in acrylic, watercolor, pastels, natural dyes, and fiber on a variety of substrates. Her “Dresses, Reflections of Past and Present” series explores present day and historical multi-cultural feminist storytelling. Mithani works with paint, sculpture, and collage using water-based paints, natural pigments, wire, her repurposed used tea bags, and found objects in her intimate, detailed, artwork.
Janell’s artwork is in many private and corporate collections, including:
The Walt Disney Corporation, Pasadena Symphony, Avon Products, Inc., Girl Scouts of America, DyDee Diaper Service, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and The Seville Group.
Authored Publications
BUD, A Collection of Floral and Baby Art. Published book, 2011
Television
Cindy Costales Interview, MPK-TV, Monterey Park, CA, April 3, 2012
©Janell Mithani 2025
janellmithani.com 
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