About: Jane's life and work

The United States has been paved upon, built up, and torn down, and built up again.  Although it takes many hours of observation and travel there are still places of incredible beauty to be found.  While in Ramah, New Mexico; I had the pleasure of visiting Sean Clawsen's humble abode.  It was a simple trailer home surrounded by miles of sandstone bluffs, hidden water holes, mule deer, elk, and bears.  While Sean shot his guns I walked around his property to take in the scenery.  As I shuffled about, I saw a set of antlers on the top of a giant anthill.  When I got closer I realized that there was a decapitated mule deer head resting on top of the anthill.  Insects had started the decomposition process and I noticed how seamlessly the head and the hill connected.  It was grotesque but beautiful and made me consider the interconnectedness of earth, flesh, liquid, and facilitators of decomposition. 

Everywhere I looked I saw how closely life and land connected.  The nests of rock swallows hidden under cliffs mimicked the color and shape of the stones they were attached to.  The mule deer’s buff grey coat camouflaged with the browns and grey of the desert to keep them hidden from predators.  The quill-covered backs of porcupines gave them protection from bobcats, coyotes and fox.  However, adaptation is not always perfect.  Porcupines have soft bellies; if they are flipped over by a clever predator they become supper.  No matter how ingeniously adaptation evolves, flora and fauna will adjust to overcome the adaptations of others. 

Evolution is a state of flux.  The environment changes; plate tectonics shift the shape of the earth, weather patterns cause flooding or drought, resources wax and wane, and all the species of earth constantly adapt to these changes.  Some species will thrive in change; other species will suffer. This narrative of degeneration and regeneration drives me to create images that contextualize the struggles ecosystems face on planet earth in a metaphoric planet of my creation.

My paintings are research based explorations of this evolution of land, life, and its struggles to survive.  Symbiotic relationships, camouflage, adaptation, history and overspecialization are magnified, abstracted and embellished to create an environment where animals and earth are entangled.