The daughter of watercolorist Michael Mason and oil painter, Janet Mason, Brenda always felt compelled to express herself through art. She studied photography and art at the California State University at Northridge and graduated from the University of Houston with a B.A. in Communications. Always a painter of everything from wall murals to furniture, Mason found a niche in three-dimensional art. After attending mosaic classes at The Art School of the Austin Museum of Art and the Dougherty Arts Center in Austin, Texas, she began a ten-year passion for creating and teaching mosaics. Mason found, through her teaching, that most women have the mistaken belief that they are not artistic. “Women are creative in every sense,” says Mason. “The key is to have the right tools and materials.” With a mission to empower women to find the artist within, Mason wanted to develop a wearable art line that would be designed and proudly worn by the end user. In 2007, a Build-Your-Own Jewelry line was born.
A 1910 cottage nestled in the Texas Hill Country town of Llano is the studio of A Rosy Outlook. With the manufacturing help of several women, including her three daughters, Mason creates one-of-a-kind charms out of recycled found objects and interesting papers. She refers to herself as “a master of adhesives” and can be found with glue-encrusted fingernails, listening to acoustic coffeehouse tunes and creating the product of the day. Manufacturing her line of soy candles and cookie sheet bottle caps can be a joyful challenge with the studio’s three “helpful” cats and one playful pooch.
Brenda is the President of A Rosy Outlook Designs Inc. and the owner of Create, a boutique in Llano, Texas. Community outreach is an important element of the business. Art supplies are given to area-wide schools and youth programs and a portion of the profits from each sale benefit several Hill Country charities as well as SafePlace, a domestic abuse shelter in Austin, Texas.
Avalon McKenzie is currently studying communication design at Parsons The New School for Design, in New York City. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the Spring of 2010.
Ever the entrepreneur, Avalon began making jewelry at the age of 8, selling macramé necklaces to neighborhood children from her bicycle basket. Now, fueled by Starbucks frappuccinos, Avalon creates unique soldered pendants by the hundreds in her Greenwich Village studio.
In addition to designing jewelry, McKenzie pursues a variety of artistic media, including print design, web design, and illustration, “The world of design is evolving at warp speed, and I think it’s crucial to be a multifaceted artist,” says McKenzie. In addition to creating fresh and fashion-forward designs, McKenzie looks to the past for much of her inspiration, “I love reinterpreting looks from other eras.” Vintage photographs, pocket watches, beat-up cowboy boots, and antique china are among the trinkets she collects for her art pieces and jewelry collections. McKenzie’s talents are also expressed at ARO as the creative marketing director and website designer.