Riding the bus to my studio, I often wonder about the buildings and houses that fly by. What goes on inside them and what stories could they tell?
Houses are a lot like us. We take each day as it comes, some sunny and some stormy. We start brand new; we weather; our foundations crumble a little; we get a new paint job along the way; maybe even a new addition. After a time our exterior is gone. But some remember “that blue house that used to be on the corner”. And, like buildings, we have an outer appearance that is visible to all and an inner story that often remains unseen.
This series of 22 paintings is called My Life as a House: Outer/Inner Journeys, and it is autobiographical.
Eleven paintings tell the whimsical and allegorical story of my own little house as it grows up and journeys through life. Eleven matching abstract paintings reveal the inner life of my house during that time period. I wanted to explore the length of a whole lifetime, and so in the last two paintings my husband and I die, even though we are currently very much alive! The journey of life is a gift, mysteriously wrapped in seasons of joy, grief, waiting, transition, death, new beginnings, and celebration.
My hope is that the visual language of this body of work, both representative and abstract, will help us recognize, accept, and appreciate the stage of life we are in and see it in the context of our whole life journey. Mary Oliver, a poet I love, asks: “What are you going to do with this one wild and precious life?” That question, I believe, is worth considering whether you are 14 or 40 or 75.
Two last things:
The outer journey paintings are chockablock with symbols.
– Time of day: dawn to dusk is the measure of my life in this series.
– Houses: represent our outer physical, temporal selves; our body.
– Church: my growing awareness of spirituality; awareness of God.
– Trees: primordial symbols of the ongoing force of nature and the recurring life cycle.
- Brown trees: my parents and ancestors
- Pink tree: my life symbol and awareness of my own self as a separate entity.
– Windows: represent the eyes of the soul; the integration of the outer/inner self.
– Movement from foreground to background: death
– Water and sand: life at our family cottage
Also, as I worked on these paintings, I often found myself humming songs that I knew about houses, so lines from these songs became the titles.
First pair: “This is my house; this is where I live.”
Second pair: “That is the question. Where is the answer? Inside my house.”
Third pair: “Where seldom was heard a discouraging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day.”
Fourth pair: This is the maiden all forlorn.”
Fifth pair: “Come on-a my house, my house; I’m going to give you candy.”
Sixth pair: “Nothing ever slows her down and mess is not allowed.”
Seventh pair: “The changes we often fight.”
Eighth pair: “Make us a house of peace.”
Ninth pair: “I’ll light the fire. You place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.”
Tenth pair: “A house is not a home if you’re not there.”
Eleventh Pair: Ain’t a-gonna need this house no longer; ain’t a-gonna need this house no more.”
Jane’s art can be seen on her website, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.
