Artist, Environmentalist. Best known for her witty visual puns, Connie Jost’s art pleaded the case for conservation with whimsical humor and the depiction of natural beauty. Born in rural South Jersey to an artist mother and a carpenter-fisherman father, she earned Art degrees at Montclair State College and Goddard University in Los Angeles in addition to apprenticing with SoHo (New York) artist Patsy Norvell, an important early influence. Yet Jost’s greatest inspiration remained the bayshore region where she spent most of her life and had taught for several years. Her work was commissioned by many government and environmental agencies for public display, and notably includes the relief painting “Salmon Chanted Evening” at the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Headquarters, and the 13 ft. x 20 ft. fiberglass sculpture “Shelf Life” at the Marine Studies Center, Rutgers University. Among other venues, she exhibited at the Rosenfeld and Muse Galleries in Philadelphia, where her 1988 “Stars in Snipes” particularly impressed reviewers. Representing the American flag as a net of abundance, it simultaneously decried the depletion of natural resources by such practices as over-fishing. The tall, lanky artist’s creativity and prodigious energy extended far beyond the studio, and the personable Jost was a compelling advocate for the AIDS Quilt, the Delaware Bay Schooner Project, and the arts in education. After her death from cancer at age 47, a memorial art scholarship was established in her name. Jost’s life and legacy were also the subject of a documentary produced by New Jersey Public Television, NJN. (bio by: Nikita Barlow)  Family links:  Parents:  Carl R Jost (1920 – 1999)  Blanche Stetler Jost (1924 – 2005)