Raya

Biography

Raya's earliest memories of childhood include creating art. Even then, her work was placed in yearly school exhibition held in the Rackham Museum. She received such a positive response to her art during those shows, that it was then that she knew she wanted to be an artist.

A move to Florida in the late 1960s gave Raya the opportunity to work under the tutelage of New College Art Professor Jack Cartlidge. At sixteen she was creating full size human figures in cement and marble dust. Later Raya moved to San Francisco intent on creating a life as an artist. Within two years she had become a successful street artist, paying her bills by creating and selling her unique jewelry. Over the next two decades Raya moved from creating and selling her own jewelry on the street to working for a fortune 500 company and designing for top manufacturers of jewelry in the United States.

Raya moved to Arizona in the mid 1980s, where she was hired to design art for a major printing company. Her talent was quickly recognized and she was given the opportunity to manage their etching department.. Another publisher soon noticed Raya’s talents and by 1992 she was creating monoprints and originals on paper for them. Her work continues to be recognized by art lovers across the country for her orignal interpretations of landscape, florals and still life settings.