Having always considered herself to be an artist, and wanting a life in the fine arts from an early age, at long last, Alison Claire LaMons, is emerging as a largely self-taught “outsider” artist with a broad artistic range and raw energy from years of study, travel, work and observation.

After earning a degree in Interior Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where upon graduation she earned the esteemed “Best Portfolio Award,” she spent the next many years as a draftsman, designer and architectural illustrator in prominent architectural firms. This afforded Alison the opportunity for several years of travel and study abroad, as well as a unique Blue Water Pacific Ocean sailboat passage as a crewmember on a 38’ ketch, “Freedom, Honolulu.”

While in Europe, Alison completed a program of study abroad with the Parson’s School of Art and Design in Paris, followed by independent travel. After months of travel by trains from Norway to Greece, immersed in the art and history of Europe, and working as an au paire in Innsbruck, Austria, she finally landed in Venice, Italy for an internship with the Guggenheim Collection.

From a pool of thousands of European and American students competing for but a few dozen slots, Alison was selected as a student intern with the Peggy Guggenhiem Collection of Modern Art in Venice, Italy, under the Directorship of Philip Rylands, and his author wife, Jane Rylands. For a time, Alison lived with famed Venetian artist and his family, Ludovico deLuigi, considered to be a Lion of Venice. During the time Alison lived amidst the architecture, art and culture of the “la Serrenissima,” Venice was undergoing a rebirth of the art of the Venetian mask and Carnivale, which had been previously banned for centuries which spawned in Alison a love for the art of the Venetian mask.

After these experiences, Alison returned Stateside to attend college and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia International University, studying Bible and Theology; chosing by design to focus on the message ahead of the medium of which art communicates. Alison then settled in Atlanta, Georgia, returned to architecture, and met and married her husband, Mark LaMons. They now reside in Lakeland, Florida with their three daughters, which Alison has homeschooled from birth. Now, Alison is teaching her daughters, by example, that at any age one can accomplish their artistic and entrepreneurial pursuits; even when they have had a very long germination time.