Biography
Rock Garden at Kongobu-ji, Koyasan, Japan (Fall, 1987)
Jane resides in North Carolina. Her childhood (b.1958) was spent in the rural and coastal regions of New England, where nature and the outdoors were formative. This was an early influence of place, now an intangible landscape that shapes her sensibilities. From these surroundings she finds an initial source for imagery: flora & fauna, hand-tools, boats, and houses. Their reference is elusive but nestled there in the abstraction.
Her education is in fine arts, with a focus on sculpture and drawing, and includes a BFA (1980) from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, an MFA (1984) from the University of California, Davis, and a summer residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture (1980).
Her work has been nurtured through rich cultural experiences. She has spent seven years living abroad, in Japan (1986 –1987) and in Switzerland (1988-1989, 1991-1995). Here, she pursued her art interests through continuous studio practice and art study. A wealth of resources surrounded her. In Japan she studied Space, Color, Placement, & Materials in the Art, Architecture, and Gardens. It was a faraway world of refined visual sensibilities and intrigue. Switzerland offered an affinity closer to her own environ, one enhanced by exceptionally fine art collections and splendid landscapes. She lived in Zurich, a city that embraces art and design. It was an ideal setting for studying the art she loved, while developing her own artistic approach and vision. After living abroad, Jane returned to the States to be introduced to the South, where she has lived for 25+ years: just outside Atlanta, in Georgia, and recently in her new home in Hillsborough, North Carolina. There is a certain ‘remembrance of things past’ she has reacquainted with here; living in a small historic town, surrounded by a natural and agricultural landscape, memories of her earlier New England are stirred. This reacquaintance with early influences is an enriching resource; there is a renewed kinship with early affinities coupled with the allure of newness.
In her studio practice, Jane values understanding the art of her culture and that of others; she invests considerable time exploring other ways of seeing the world, through books and museum visits. Here she discovers selective affinities, such as the Inuit or Cycladic. Her work is built with a clear respect for creative process. How she approaches making something is integral with what she makes. She takes what is encountered in her world and translates it into visual thought and creation, seeking to make work that is directly formed from her own visual interests and explorations. Her challenge is to be attentive and selective, identifying which elements are hers to pursue, develop, and articulate. Jane strives for clarity and simplification, a place where beauty, humor, and play are welcomed participants.