Description
Collection of the Artist: Not for sale.
This is my favorite one-of-a-kind artist book and is one of the very first books I made in the mid 1970's. It is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of a dualistic culture, the psychology of the nuclear family and the real original sin of the Garden of Eden -- the sin of egoistic separation from creation that empowers the individual to exercise power over others, and to create a culture of dominance and submission, of war and conquest.
I have always worked in journals, keeping dream diaries, writing down spiritual experiences in notebooks for as long as I can remember. I recall writing a series of poems in the third grade that I illustrated just for my own interest. When I started making visual art as a young woman, I continued to mix images with the written word. My works on paper often utilized scotch tape, staples, oil stick, pencil, xeroxes, rubber stamping, bronze powders and found imagery and sometimes bits of thread or fabric or even plastic.
One day, several years after beginning my one-of-a-kind artist books, I helped my parents move out of their house and discovered hidden in the attic a stash of old cards, pictures and little books I had fashioned out of all the exact same materials! Funny how natural it was as a child, yet as an adult, I had to contrive to use those kinds of materials in my work to purposefully avoid the preciousness and elitism I felt was a part of the art market, and that often possesses the world of fine art. So it is especially dear to me that I can offer my work for sale in this environment, direct from me to you, with the themes important to me and connected to the work, explained in plain language.
History Lesson was made when I was very angry about the nuclear family, angry about the prevalent societal roles that men and women are supposed to assume unthinkingly, and the roles that even innocent children are subtly coerced to play out in the process of becoming obedient carbon copies of their parents. I yearned for some kind of magic, understanding, and equal ground in relationships, and spent my rage in creative expression, using sarcasm often as my weapon of choice, working with images I found in textbooks from the 1950's.
Read Jane's artist statement and resume.
