Community mourns nationally recognized St. Croix artist Jan Mitchell Larsen

ST. CROIX — People in the territory over are sharing messages of condolence and grief following the death of artist Jan Mitchell Larsen on Saturday. She would have been 80 on Tuesday.

“Jan Mitchell was a treasure, who loved the Virgin Islands, and who was loved by all of us at the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands,” said CFVI President Dee Baecher Brown in a statement shared with The Daily News. Brown said the artist worked with the foundation for more than 20 years, creating ornaments for donors and platters for board members and officers at the end of their terms.

“We will miss Jan’s creativity, her artistic expression and her humanity, and we will cherish her beautiful, colorful works of art,” she said. A nationally recognized sculptor and glass-based artist, Mitchell Larsen’s vibrant pieces line the walls of the Mitchell Larsen Studio on Company Street in Christiansted. The studio shared the news of her death on social media on Sunday and received a torrent of condolences from artists and others whose lives were touched by Mitchell-Larsen’s life and work.