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June Otani Baensch
June Otani Baensch, a long time resident of Hastings, was a loving wife and mother, an artist, illustrator, printmaker and sculptor. She died peacefully at home with her family on Sunday, August 26, 2012. She was 78 and had a long confrontation with PSP, progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare neurological disease. June loved her garden, organic living and her Salt & Pepper shaker collection. June Otani was born on July 7, 1934 in Santa Paula, California. June and her family were interned from May 1942 to November 1945 in one of the relocation camps for Japanese Americans located in Gila River, Arizona. She attended Pasadena City College and then the Art Center College of Design where she received a B.F.A. degree with Honors. She continued her education in New York by attending the Art Students League, Pratt Graphics Center, and School of Visual Arts. June started her career working as an Assistant Art Director for Grey Advertising Inc. in New York. She then started her own studio and illustrated fashion that appeared in such leading magazines as Harpers Bazaar and Vogue. Her fine line drawings were recognized by art editors and received the New York Art Directors Club Awards, Philadelphia Art Directors Show Award as well as New York Illustrators Club Award. June illustrated over twenty children's books some of which provided cultural awareness based on classic Asian stories such as Peach Boy, Sim Chung and River Dragon for Dell Doubleday publishers. Her work also included the Discovering Science Secrets Series for Scholastic Inc. She created very different illustrations for four titles published by HarperCollins Publishers including Ten Potatoes in a Pot. Three of her favorite titles she illustrated were Chibi, A True Story from Japan, Little Dog Poems and Little Dog and Duncan released by Clarion Publishers. Later in her career, June turned to creating wood sculptures, mixed media, oil paintings and became a printmaker with two Brandt Presses in her studio. Her work was exhibited in over 29 shows ranging from four annual exhibits of the National Association of Women Artists, Pratt Graphic Gallery, Silvermine Guild and Hudson River Museum. In recent years she was a founding member of the Upstream Gallery and had seven one person shows from 1997 through 2011. A special experience was her exhibit at the Circolo Artistico gallery in Bologna, Italy in 2000. June is survived by her husband Robert E. Baensch; a son Hiroshi Baensch and daughter Miyoko Nather and four granddaughters. Visitation will take place on Tuesday, August 28th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm and 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the Edwards Dowdle Funeral Home, 64 Ashford Avenue, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522. A memorial service will take place at the Purple Crayon Center for Learning and Social Innovation, 52 Main Street, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY on Sunday, September 9th from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. www.purplecrayoncenter.org In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Cure PSP Foundation, 30 East Padonia Road, Suite 201, Timonium, MD 21093 www.curepsp.org - or - the Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA 91103 www.artcenter.edu.July 7, 1934 - August 26, 201207/07/193408/26/2012
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June Otani Baensch
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