Virtual Artist Talk: American Society of Botanical Artists

Trained as a classical violist, Claudia Campazzo had a musical career, performing and teaching in New England. After a period of progressive hearing loss, she became profoundly deaf in 2016. Soon after, looking for a creative outlet, she enrolled in a watercolor class and hasn’t stopped making art since. Campazzo’s work has been selected for the ASBA Annual International Exhibition in 2019, 2020 and 2022, and she has been part of many group shows in California. She recently returned to her native Chile after more than 30 years of living in the United States and is currently studying classical art at Sadie Valeri Atelier.

Faye Van Wert began watercolor painting at Wellesley College Botanic Gardens in 2013. Her work has been exhibited at The Brush Gallery, Boston and Newport Flower Shows, 2016 and 2017 Filoli Botanical Art Exhibitions, 2016 Beauty of Botanicals Show at OA Gallery, and 2018, 2019, and 2025 (2) ASBA Annual International Exhibitions.

Van Wert received a BA from the University of Michigan, a BFA from the in illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art, and an MA from Simmons College. She wrote and illustrated Empty Pockets (2000), illustrated children’s magazines, and worked in pottery and silkscreen design. Van Wert lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

John Pastoriza-Piñol is a contemporary artist based in Melbourne, Australia and works in the mode of botanical painting. His practice often departs from the discipline of Naturalism and instead investigates the complex and dynamic interrelationships between man and nature and science and art.

Pastoriza-Piñol is a recipient of many awards and accolades including ASBA’s 2013 Dianne Bouchier Award for Excellence in Botanical Art and the 2005 RHS Gold Medal 2005 and is recognized as one of Australia’s foremost contemporary botanical artists. His work is held in public and private collections around the world, including: National Gallery of Victoria, Southbank, Australia; Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat Central, Australia; Hunt Institute, Durham, NC, USA; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK; Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Australia; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and the Collection of Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton.

Pastoriza-Piñol's work is included in both the Highgrove Florilegium and Transylvania Florilegium, projects created under the aegis of the H.R.H Prince of Wales’ Charitable Foundation. He is currently represented by Scott Livesey Galleries, Australia, where he recently had a solo exhibition titled Botanicum Series II.

The work of Asuka Hishiki ranges from drawings of rare and endangered plants to familiar vegetables found in the home vividly painted in astonishing detail. For the past decade, her work has addressed environmental issues and the survival of the natural world, including large-scale installations of the migration patterns of monarch butterflies in recycled paper. Hishiki has also participated in residencies at botanical gardens around the world as part of a decades-long cross-institutional effort to produce a vast florilegium of contemporary botanical documentations.

Born in Kyoto, Japan, Hishiki lives in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan. She received an MFA in Painting from Kyoto City University of Arts. Hishiki’s work is in public collections including: The Huntington, San Marino, CA; Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO; The National Tropical Botanical Garden, Koloa, HI; New York State Museum, Albany, NY; The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA; Kew Gardens, Richmond, TX and the Shirley Sherwood Collection, Richmond, UK.