An award winning professional artist and teacher, Fifi LeFan holds a B.S.E. in Art education from Mississippi College, with a concentration in painting. Her work is a part of several corporate collections, including PNC Bank, Humana Inc., Providian, Baptist Hospitals, and the Kentucky State Fair Board, as well as many private collections throughout the South. At the age of five, Fifi moved with her family to a farm outside of LaGrange, Kentucky. It was there that her creativity was nurtured. She spent hours alone... exploring, pretending, and discovering new wonders each day. She loved living so close to the land. Next to her relationship with the Lord, the land has always been her most abiding and constant friend, a bond that has affected her perceptions as an artist, as well as her perceptions of life.While teaching art in Biloxi, Mississippi she found herself surrounded by children from different ethnic backgrounds, many who lived in poverty and who touched her life deeply. After this experience Fifi began "seeing" children as she never had before. Just as writers write about what they know best, painters paint about what they know best... and so painting became an extension of painting the things she felt deeply about... a sense of wonder, honesty, trust, and friendship. As a Christian, she saw how these qualities are necessary for a healthy, growing relationship with God.
Today, after painting children's portraits professionally for over 20 years, Fifi is expressing her delight also through painting both impressionistic oil landscapes that sometimes incorporate children's images in them, as well as still lifes, and florals. "I want my work to be an expression of who I am, not just an effort to perform for people. My faith in Christ, my passion for the land, and the delight I find in children all affect my paintings. My hope is that my work can connect with people and remind them of some of the wonder they may have forgotten along the way.
