Joan Brown (1938-1990) emerged from the post-abstract expressionist era in the late 1950s as one of a lively group of Northern California artists whose work gave rise to Bay Area figurative painting, Beat culture, and funk art, and helped establish California as a major creative center in the United States. In this first book to fully explore Joan Brown's artistic career, Karen Tsujimoto provides an overview of Brown's life, from her San Francisco childhood to her years as a mature artist and teacher. Jacquelynn Baas focuses on Brown's use of universal and personal symbolism by analyzing one of her most celebrated paintings, The Bride. In addition to many fine reproductions of her work and personal photographs from her family's collection, the authors have included material from extensive interviews with Joan Brown that allow her to speak for herself about art and the creative process. In 1990, while installing an obelisk she had created for the Eternal Heritage Museum in Puttaparthi, India, Joan Brown was killed instantly when a concrete turret fell on her. What lives on in her work is her fascination with the human condition and a determination to record its essence as reflected in her own life.