EDUARDO TERRANOVA is a practicing artist and architect based in New York City. Born in Cali, Colombia, his childhood is filled with the iconography of the Catholic faith and the violence of civil conflict engendered by a sixty-year period of internecine war in his homeland. He is raised with his grandfather's stories of terror and recounting of the deaths and disappearance of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Subsequently, Terranova has his own personal encounters with the dark menace of political and military violence. At 19, he chooses to leave the country. The conflict continues.As a child, Eduardo stitches and builds kites and makes his own toys. Early ballet classes helped him develop a sense of space, of defying gravity and balance of bodies in motion. His passion for art expands. Soon, he feels the power and freedom of holding a pencil or brush; it is like dancing around the universe with his heart in his hands. His studies and travels bring a mature appreciation of dimensionality, textures and surfaces. He begins to draw on a magical realism created from the bringing together and rending apart of elements. The result is a unique aesthetic, bonded in the smelter of life experience and manifesting the enduring fountainhead of human dignity.

The Emerald Forest
36 x 60, Oil on Canvas
Toluca Lake, CA
Copyright 2003 Janai-Ami
www. Janai-Ami. net
Debut Exhibition at the Don O 'Melveny Gallery - March 1, 2003
Charity Auction for the Wellness Community L.A. (Supporting Cancer Patients & Their Families) -
The Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, California - March 2003
Private Collection, Beverly Hills, California

The Morning of March 1, 2003

I received a call from Don at the Don O'Melveny Gallery on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood a few days earlier. 'Did I have any paintings for him that I might want to show - they were having a gallery opening of contemporary art work and he really wanted to include a piece of my work.' I agreed to put The Emerald Forest into the show. On the morning of the show, as I stepped out of the shower, my mind was on the fact that President Bush was about to lead us into war in Iraq. Would there be retaliation, as had been suggested by the media - perhaps even here on U.S. soil. Were there really any weapons of mass destruction? Why did U.S. servicemen need to go overseas and die - was this really our war? What would Sadaam Hussein do in retaliation? I sat on the edge of my bed where I kept a pencil to scribble down whatever words popped into my consciousness. It was a poem, and I typed it up and placed it next to The Emerald Forest to take with me to the Gallery. At that moment, the telephone rang and it was my older sister.

Shain's Way
36" x 48" Oil on Canvas
Private Collection, New York
Copyright 2003
www. Janai-Ami. net > Imagery > Landscapes

My next door neighbor Shain needed life-saving surgery. I assured her that this next surgical procedure would be a 'piece of cake.' Her cancer was far more aggressive than mine had been. She faced this latest adversity with a mixture of courage and humor and grace. That was Shain's way. That was the path she chose. She was tired, and after my pep talk had lifted her spirits, I left and returned home.

Casey's Corner
11" x 14" Acrylic on Wood
January - October 2006
In Memory of Casey Bear
Private Collection of the Artist
Copyright 2006 Janai-Ami

Once Upon A Time
6' x 10' Oil on Canvas
Copyright 2003
Janai-Ami Private Collection, Germany
Palm Springs Desert Museum, National Juried Show, Award 2004

September Eleventh 2001
[Les Roses Cachees Dans Le Feu]*
20" x 30" Oil on Canvas
On Loan, New York
Copyright 2001
www. Janai-Ami. net > Imagery > 3047 Series (9/11 Series)

I began painting in response to 9/11.

I had to stop in Pasadena at the photographer in order to get the painting photographed for reproduction. On my return trip, I stopped in to see Sandy, my auto insurance agent and a friend. I brought the painting in from the car and eighty degree weather and propped it up on a chair in her office while we sat talking.

Le Jardin
12" x 24" Oil on Canvas
Private Collection, Rolling Hills (L.A.), California
Copyright March 2002
www. Janai-Ami. net > Imagery > 3047 Series

Le Jardin is a small 12" x 24" oil on canvas floral which was painted in March 2002 in Hermosa Beach, California. It is part of the 9/11 series of 3,047 florals. It was the first painting which sold, and it sold to a physician in southern California based on a photograph of the painting which I was looking at while sitting in the doctor's lounge in a South Bay Hospital.

California Contemporary fine artist and primitive Janai-Ami sculpts using paint as a medium in an unusual technique which blends craft and sculpting with more traditional approaches to the medium. Her extraordinary use of color is widely regarded among fellow artists placing her among the top colorists working today. The resulting impact of her passionate florals is palpable. Her unique work may be viewed at https://www.Janai-Ami.net.