ARTconnectsLA began in November 2008. One of our founding members, Cassie Tondro, had been shipping artwork to The Art Connection in Boston for placement in agencies there. Rather than ship work across the country, she had the idea of starting a similar program in Los Angeles, and recruited Donna DiStefano, Sally Kraus and Rama Yaffe to work with her. The four founding partners worked together to shape ARTconnectsLA into an organization that both reflects Los Angeles culture and serves the diversity of communities in Los Angeles.
Donna DiStefano works as an interior designer on high-end residential and commercial properties throughout Southern California. With interests in design and Eastern teachings, she is currently involved in a pilot program that is using feng shui techniques to improve commercial environments.
Donna has followed a lifelong passion for the visual arts and her belief in the positive change art can produce in people’s lives. She is a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. In recent years, she has studied art, design, photography and architecture at UCLA and Otis College of Art and Design.
Prior to her design career, Donna spent more than a decade as an executive producer in the business of television commercial production. She worked extensively in the Hispanic and Latin markets and managed productions in Chile, Venezuela, Spain and other Latin and South American countries.
Donna’s personal pursuits in the arts include photography and black and white photo tinting. She also volunteers at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Donna has lived in Los Angeles for 33 years.
Sally Kraus works as a career coach for artists working in all mediums through her company, Enterprising Artists. She works one-on-one via phone and the Internet supporting artists in focusing their efforts, creating marketing plans and working their plans to achieve their goals. Sally partnered with fellow coach, Rama Yaffe, and created a series of workshops entitled Living the Creative Life, which they have shared with a number of artist groups in the Los Angeles area.
Sally has her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MA from the Annenberg School for Communications at USC. She did her coaches training at The Coaches Training Institute in Northern California. She is a member of International Coach Federation and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles chapter.
Prior to coaching, Sally worked in advertising as a producer of television commercials and in public relations as an account executive, event coordinator and writer. In the last decade, she worked as an artist relations director for a publishing company and several e-commerce art-selling ventures including The Guild, which is a robust online gallery of fine art and fine craft.
With roots in the Midwest, Sally lived in New York City briefly before moving to Los Angeles more than 30 years ago.
Cassie Tondro is a painter, currently working in acrylics and latex. She has a number of bodies of work that she is marketing through galleries and art consultants.
Cassie grew up in a creative home and considers herself a second generation artist. Her mother is a painter and a sculptor. She began her artistic exploration in fiber arts studying with Esther Parkhurst, Mary Ellen Hopkins and Bee Colman. When Cassie moved into painting, she studied at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.
Prior to becoming a career artist, Cassie worked in computer programming. She has twenty years experience programming large and small computers, working for corporations and OEM Manufacturers on operating systems and applications software. After leaving the computer industry, Cassie opened a retail store that specialized in fiber arts classes and supplies. After seven years in retailing, she sold her store to pursue her lifelong dream of creating and selling fine art. She considers herself an artist first and foremost, and has been passionate about art since she was a child.
Cassie has shown her work in galleries in Los Angeles, as well as in Atlanta GA, Chicago IL, Eugene, OR, Lubbock TX, Ann Arbor MI, Traverse City, MI, and Denver CO. Her work is in private, corporate and public collections throughout the US. She has been donating work to The Art Connection in Boston since 2006.
Cassie was born and raised in Southern California, and currently resides in Santa Monica, California.
Rama Yaffe works as a life and business coach for visual artists through her company, White Tiger Coaching. She works one-on-one with artists from all over the country and has teamed with Sally Kraus to lead workshops for artists in Southern California on a variety of topics including visioning, goal setting, marketing, and organization.
She is also on staff with Lifeline Coaching and Education as a success coach and trainer for leaders in the direct sales industry.
Rama has a B.A. from Tufts and is credentialed by The Coaches Training Institute and the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is currently on the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles chapter of ICF.
Both internationally and in the U.S., Rama has served as a volunteer in nonprofit organizations where she has worked closely with trustees and management teams. Her experience includes master planning, human resources, and running book publishing and film production projects.
