Joan Son is an American artist who has devoted her career to the exploration of contemporary origami as fine art. Since 1964, when she first learned to fold the traditional crane, Joan has been intrigued with the art, math and magic of paper folding. Her professional origami career debuted in the windows of Tiffany & Co. in the spring of 1993.

I have always loved paper. My first love was designing paper doll dresses when I was 9 years old. So even my mother’s typing paper, lined school papers and tissue paper were attractive to me from very early on. Joan Son

Joan has created numerous large-scale installations for public and private venues as well as small works for museum shops including the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian in Washington DC. In 2011, she had major exhibitions at both the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and the Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, with works ranging from small containers to 8 foot hanging kimonos.

Studying with masters from around the world, Joan is a member of Origami USA and attends and teaches at their conferences in New York, California and Ohio.

Joan's work at Arden's includes functional and touchable containers, wearable pins and three-dimensional art works that can either stand alone or hang on the wall.