John and Monica Haley were painters, sculptors, and educators who worked primarily in California.
John Haley (1905-1991) was born on September 21st in Minnesota. He graduated from the Minneapolis School of Art and studied abroad in Europe for a year in 1926. In 1927, he traveled Europe with his mentor Cameron Booth where he met Vaclav Vytlacil who encouraged Haley to study under Hans Hofmann. In 1928, he returned to the United States where he married Monica Phares. The two then moved to California where John Haley taught for forty-two years at the University of California Berkeley with other "modernists" Worth Ryder, Hofmann, Erle Loran and Margaret Peterson.
In 1943, John was drafted into the United Sates Naval Reserve, and his talent at drawing assigned him the role of drawing surrounding areas for invasion strategies.
John died in 1991.
Monica Haley was an art educator at the University of California Berkeley and died in 1997.