Harriet Zabusky-Zand attributes her lifelong love of color and interest in drawing and painting to the early influence of her parents. Her father, a talented painter and sculptor, and her mother, a craftswoman, set an excellent example of creativity and involvement in social and civic concerns. "My art education", says Ms. Zabusky-Zand, "began when, as a child, I accompanied my father on weekly sketching trips around beautiful colonial Savannah and neighboring fishing villages."

She continued to study art through high school, and then went on to complete a B.A. degree in English Literature and Art History at Boston University. While in graduate school for a Philosophy degree, she first encountered Buddhism, which would later become her spiritual path and an important influence on her art. Active involvement in both the peace movement and the women's movement helped to develop her compassion for oppressed people around the world. This is evident in her portraits and paintings of people from developing nations.

Seeking new vehicles for personal expression, Harriet learned to weave and moved to England and set up a studio. During her stay abroad, she exhibited her work and executed commissions for tapestries and rugs. She also made several working trips to Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. The vibrant color, intensity of life, and primal energy of these places is evident in the work from this period and re-emerges in her more recent "Dressed to Kill" series. These paintings are based on the warriors of Papua New Guinea and her pacifist beliefs. In the artist's words, "The way these people paint their bodies and faces is very exciting to me. By using images from a very belligerent culture, my intention is to raise awareness of our own warlike, aggressive nature and to address issues of adornment and identity."

After her return to the Boston area, Harriet received a Diploma of Fine Arts from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from Mass College of Art. Abstract Expressionism was a major influence on the work she produced during this time. The sense of infinite space, luminous, sensuous color, and allusions to landscape allowed for the expression of her Buddhist ideas and visions.

Adornment and identity are continuing themes in Harriet's newest series, "Painted Ladies", portraits of drag queens, transvestites and transsexuals. She muses, "I am fascinated by their creativity, the richness of their fantasies and the exaggerated view they provide of our concepts of beauty and seductiveness."

Harriet Zabusky-Zand's work has been exhibited widely and has been included in the Gillette Corporation collection, the Sonesta Sonnebend collection, and many other corporate and private collections in the U.S. and England.