FITZGERALD- Joan V. (nee Voyer & Orffeo)
Jan 24, 1930 - Sep 1, 2024
Joan was born in Batavia and grew up in Rochester. Her family moved to Buffalo when she was fifteen. She graduated from Kenmore High School and studied Art & Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and subsequently earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master Science in Art Education from Buffalo State College. She was an artist and a writer who enjoyed gardening. Her collages and acrylic paintings were shown in exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. She has won awards for her art from the Catherine Lollilard Wolfe Exhibitions in New York City, the National Collage Society, Hudson, Ohio, and the Upstream People Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska. Fitzgerald also exhibited in the Summer Salon Series at the Broome Street Gallery in NYC and the SOMARTS Gallery in San Francisco, CA. She had many solo shows in the Buffalo area such as Canisius College, The Artist's Group Gallery, Art Dialogue Gallery and the Market Street Gallery in Lockport. Her large installation, "Fools of Love" won the silver medal in the Buffalo Society of Artists 120 year celebration at the Anderson Gallery of the University of Buffalo. Her work is in corporate and private collections through out the United States including the School of Art, Kent State University in Ohio, Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, Marble House Editions Publishing Company in NYC, the Burchfield-Penney Art Museum, the. Gerald Meade Collection, Bruce Blair Collection, and the Weinberg Campus Collection. She taught art at Hamburg Junior High, where she was department chair and at Erie Community College where she was an instructor and Acting Assistant Academic Dean for Liberal Arts, Allied Health and Business Technologies. She was coordinator for the City Campus Honor's program. In 1990, she received the President's Award of Recognition. itzgerald was a prolific author with four published children's books, four young adult novels, two poetry chapbooks, a poetry collection and three crime novels. Her poems appeared in. Many literary magazines. She won. First prize in the Northwoods Journal Poetry Contest in Thomaston, Maine. She was awarded a Strategic Opportunities Stipend for New York Foundation for the Arts. Joan was a Past President of the Western New York Artists Group, Past President of the Buffalo Society of Artists and Co-Chair of the Hamburg Environmental Conservation Commission.
Joan is survived by her sons Remy (Gail) Orffeo, Jerry (Kim) Orffeo and Andres (Ann) Orffeo, her grandchildren Jacob (Corlene) & Lindsay Orffeo and great-granddaughter Leah Margaret Orffeo. She is predeceased by her brother Russell Voyer, Jr., and is survived by her brother Adrian M. Voyer. She is also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins and two-step grandchildren, Kevin (Elizabeth) Poplawski & Kim (Mariano) Garcia and four step-great-grandchildren.
Family will receive friends on Friday, September 20th from 4-7 PM at LOOMIS, OFFERS & LOOMIS INC. FUNERAL HOME (Hamburg Chapel), 207 Main Street. A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, September 21st from 1-3 PM at the Western New York Artists Group Gallery at 1 Linwood avenue Buffalo, NY 14209.
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