Irana is a California artist living on the Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz. She has been doing some kind of art all her life—either painting, teaching, illustrating, or thinking about it. Her paintings and monoprints hang in many collections and have been reproduced as cards and prints that are sold throughout the USA and parts of Europe.

Her more lighthearted work, sometimes featured under the name Roni, appears in children's books, games, on linens and on various other products. Her latest projects include a fun picture book, "Old Mr. Mackle Hackle," by Gunnar Madsen, about a nutty old man and his cantankerous chicken (Little, Brown & Co. (a div. of Time/Warner), out in Spring, 2005), and a series of frog cocktail napkins (hopping off the racks) for PacificMerchants. Lately, for pure fun, she has been experimenting with illustrating on handbuilt ceramic pots and platters.

Sometimes it seems that the more serious the world gets, the more lighthearted my art becomes; as someone said: art enables you to run away without leaving home. Where else can you dance with a frog, ride on a pig, or tell jokes to a chicken? I like to think that the creatures I've painted are traveling out on their own in the world, carrying on, affecting (infecting?) the people that interact with them—giving them a smile, a chuckle, maybe even a new (if a little bit twisted) slant on this life we live.

If you would like to see more samples or inquire about purchasing artwork, please email me anytime. To see an online presentation of my illustrations, please see Picture-Book.com.

Thank you for visiting!

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