Fran’s love for the visual arts began at a very young age.  From her earliest years and throughout high school she excelled in drawing and painting, won awards, and was encouraged by her high school art teacher and mentor, Rebecca Blair.  In high school, she learned about commercial printing while working in the cartography division at Rand McNally Publishing in Versailles, Kentucky.

 

Fran Redmon graduated with a BFA in commercial art and a studio concentration in weaving from Western Kentucky University in 1977. Her first career position was as a graphic artist in the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Public Information Department.  Later, as a marketing specialist, she became one of two employees charged with pioneering the Craft Marketing Program in the newly formed Department of Arts.  The program, initially a pet project of first lady Phyllis George Brown, was later advanced by the Department of the Arts Commissioner, Crit Luallen, eventually becoming a nationally recognized model.  Fran was promoted to Program Manager, in 1987 and directed the Kentucky Crafted program until her retirement in 2007.

 

In retirement, Fran has returned to her first love of creating her own art. She was raised in rural Woodford County, Kentucky, the daughter of a tobacco and cattle farmer. Her heritage in agriculture and love of the natural beauty of rural Kentucky is at the root of her inspiration.  Looking for a medium suitable for her work setting, she took up pastels; which, she feels best enables her to depict her love of nature and the pastoral scenes of Kentucky.  She also creates painterly digitized photographs that often become inspiration for her paintings. Fran has taken classes with pastel artists Dianna Colgate, Marianna McDonald, Anne Kindl and Karen Margulis and has been producing and selling her pastel paintings since 2014.  Her pastels have been featured in numerous invitational and juried exhibits, including several with national artists.  For a full list go here. 

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She is a juried member of the Kentucky Arts Council's Kentucky Crafted Program.  Fran Redmon been elected a juried Associate Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA), a 501©3 non-profit educational organization that sets standards of professional excellence in studio practice and educates the public regarding the permanence and beauty of the pastel medium.

 

She and her husband, Garry, operated Redmon2  Marketing + Design, which provided graphic design and marketing services to many artisan businesses.  She is a founding and current board member, past president and current secretary of the Kentucky Craft History & Education Association.  She served a long-term board member, past program committee chair, and marketing chair of the Appalachian Artisan Center, based in Hindman, Kentucky. She serves as peer advisor for the Kentucky Arts Council.