Artistic Blood: Yovi’s Family and Their Work

     Growing up in a family full of talented and established artists, artistic creativity runs in Yovi's blood. Her beloved Uncle Victor Shapona is renowned for his creative sign painting, his skillful gold-leaf lettering, and his iconography. As the founder of ABCO signs, he applied his abundant talent to commercial art throughout San Francisco and the entire Bay Area. He was the iconographer for several Serbian Orthodox Churches, including St. John in San Francisco, CA.

     Yovi's cousin, Steven Shapona (son of Victor Shapona), is one of the last remaining artists from the San Francisco's fabled Golden Age. A graduate of San Jose State University in California, he is an artist who has explored numerous styles including Impressionism, Expressionism, and Abstraction and settled on a traditional Realism. His art is on exhibit at Thomas Reynolds Gallery in San Francisco, CA. 

     Paulina Shapona, Victor’s daughter, has been an art instructor for the Palo Alto Art Center’s Children’s Fine Art Program for 14 years. There she teaches drawing, painting, pastels, cartooning, fashion design, and puppet performance workshops to children ages 5–11. Paulina also teaches for the Pacific Art League, PALY Adult Education, and the Community School of Music and Art. She sells and shows her artwork internationally, ran her own Fine Arts School, and is a social worker for Community Action Commission. She holds a Master’s degree in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, and Archival Restoration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She also studied at the Western Business School, the California College of the Arts in Oakland, and was an apprentice for five years with Ugo Graziotti, the master of the Renaissance School in Italy.