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or call at 979.575.8580

About Loela Barry and Johan Kritzinger

Johan and Loela's art was born from a love for and practicing of fine arts as well as experimental sciences. It was kicked into motion when their paths crossed, somewhat unexpectedly on one Thanksgiving. Together they could complete the parts each other was lacking and it soon culminated in creating works of art as a team (JoLoè) and with true synergy, just as they are also teaming up in their lives through marriage.

JoLoè Art Extended - a Family gone Creative

With all the creativity and passion in the Art Barn it was inevitable that our two sons, Jacques and Heinrich, would not only be put to work :-) but actually also become passionate about this (as much as about their bikes).

They have picked up various skills, developed a lot on creative  thinking and each in own right now creates! We also have the privilege of doing some of the creation together - all four of us working for instance on parts of the same sculpture - what a wonderful way to bond in the family.

Biography

Loela was born, raised and educated in South Africa surrounded by tropical fauna and flora. She moved to the USA in 1994 and continued her studies in the field of Architecture in St.Louis, Missouri as Class of 1996. She then moved to College Station and pursued another degree in the field of Landscape Architecture at Texas A&M 1998 and achieved ultimate recognition when she and her partner won the National Award for  Excellence in Landscape Architecture. She further continued to study at the Benz School of Floral Design under J. Johnson. Loela has 20 Years of experience with her mother who is a Freelance Floral Artist and Designer in South Africa. Other studies include: Fine Art studies under R. Strijdom-Meij, Cape Town, South Africa and M. Ramazzotti, Florence, Italy. She entered the study of clay and sculpture to create unique pottery vases and containers for her floral arrangement and art work. She is a multi linguist and speaks 4 languages (English, Zulu, Afrikaans and German) and currently studying 2 more (Spanish and Italian).

As an artist and designer she was obligated to start Loela’s Studio while caring for her terminally ill husband who sadly passed away in 2004. Although the soil was rocky and dry, the creations flourished. “Some flowers have a long life and some way too short”. Loela has a passion for sharing her latest design techniques from abroad and assisting customers from all ages in making their dream day, art piece or unique creations as memorable as possible.

Johan was also born and educated in South Africa. He has advanced degrees in Chemical Engineering and Management of Technology was a registered Professional Engineer. before moving to the USA. He had a successful and exciting career in South Africa’s oil from coal technology industry where he had been involved in R&D. He has a creative passion for innovation and new development and is regarded a pioneer in many areas of technology - always reaching into the unknown and stretching the boundaries. He moved to the USA in 2001 where he is an industry leader in modeling of energy systems and in management of energy and utilities operations. He is CTO of LightRidge Resources, a company consulting in and developing software for energy management.

Johan is also a creative photographer, wood sculptor and artist at heart whom has always nurtured the combination of art and science as is so well illustrated by the notion that engineering (as opposed to the pure sciences) is part science and part art.

When Johan and Loela discovered each other they fell in love very quickly (the chemistry was just right and reacting rapidly). Soon in that course of events they also discovered that each had a specific skill and interest in the fine arts. Just as two of the right chemicals results in vigorous reaction, the fire of love and passion ignited in their lives and in their art at the same time. They quickly realized that together they could do what neither could do alone. Just as the path of their love developed somewhat with surprise, so did their art. As life and this relationship takes roller-coaster turns of joy and happiness, high in the air and unexpected rapids of laughter, so does their art. It generates images that are unexpected, could not be envisaged, and eventually stuns the viewer with what resulted from the chemical reaction and the artist impression upon that.

The outcome, Johan and Loela’s art, is a window not only on the miracles of nature as created by God but also on the miracle of deepest love and true friendship in their life-relationship.

How it all started:

Loela’s Studio

As an artist and designer Loela was obligated to start Loela’s Studio while caring for her terminally ill husband who sadly passed away in 2004. Although the soil was rocky and dry, the creations flourished. “Some flowers have a long life and some way too short”. Loela has developed a very fresh and off-the-norm style which was found very appealing by customers. In two years the business had grown so much that she had to start turn down requests for her services.

Loela has a passion for sharing her latest design techniques from abroad and assisting customers from all ages in making their dream day, art piece or unique creations as memorable as possible.

Loela’s Studio became Joloe Art & Academy and covers Floral Art, Fine Arts, Photography, Sculpture and Landscape Architecture and a few more...

Where the science part started

When Johan was studying Chemical Engineering, this maverick and a likewise friend felt that the 45 hours a week of classes and laboratories were not enough to contain their chemical energy. They therefore invaded one of the empty dormitory rooms where they were boarding and started their own experimental lab. They played with all sorts of interesting reactions and had good clean, uhhm.. dirty …chemical fun. Despite very detailed scientific observation, the artist eye of Johan however (he had a hard time deciding between Architecture and Engineering as career) had always also seen the “art that just happened” in those reactions. Years later, when demonstrating some of these reactions for his kids, he got the idea of bringing those experiences out to others in the form of art works. It was however only when Loela, a professional artist and architect, with her bubbly presence, inspiring personality and creative energy came into the picture frame that it the ideas not only became reality but were also taken to a totally new dimension.

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