Jane Michalski
Chicago, IL
Jane Michalski is a versatile artist working in pastel, oil, and mixed media, and for the past ten years, the medium of encaustic.
Message
Jane Michalski continues her exploration of the versatile medium of encaustic incorporating silk screen elements, ink jet prints and using personal photographs as sources for abstraction. A working artist and resident of Chicago for many years, she often returns to her native state of Wisconsin. Her creative energy is fueled by the presence of Lake Michigan and her love for the natural world.
Jane has exhibited in the Chicago area, and in regional and national exhibitions. Her paintings are included in many private collections and have received several awards including a Best of show Award for "Water's Edge (Summer)" at the 14th Annual Bridgeport Art Center competition in Chicago. She has received grants from the City of Chicago and the Illinois Arts Council.
In addition to her studio work as an artist, Jane has been active in Chicago’s Logan Square Community and is a former board member of the Logan Square Chamber of the Arts. She has produced and curated exhibitions for The Hairpin Arts Center. She was formerly president and treasurer of FUSEDChicago which until recently was an organization for artists working in the medium of encaustic. Her education includes a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MA degree from the University of Illinois.
Statement
I have drawn the source of some of my ideas from photographs that connect me to time and natural history. Along the shores of Lake Michigan and near my Mother’s house in Wisconsin, is an out cropping of Devonian Limestone called North Point. It is a place that I often visit and I love the way that its appearance changes depending on the time of year and the rise and fall of the lake water. Pools of water with colored algae and cracks in the stone create different patterns. In some places the limestone drops off sharply into the darker waters of the lake. I take photographs looking down and along the shore line. Sometimes I look at the photographs as inspiration for color and form and have created several paintings based on what I see using multiple layers of transparent wax.
My medium is encaustic, created from bee’s wax, pigment and damar resin. Encaustic is heated and applied in layers to cradled board. I use personal photographs for content, including bedrock from along the shores of Lake Michigan, and more recently interior views of forests.
The photographs are printed onto rice paper and incorporated into the surface of the wax. Silkscreen adds reductive elements of the bedrock, creating a layered space. Through my work, I seek to make sense of this world, to feel myself as fully present and to ground myself in the experience of being alive. The physical nature of the world captivates me. I feel the presence of a past that is revealed through structures, landforms, rock, water, and earth.
Forest imagery acknowledges the woods as an endangered place of refuge. It refers to the cycles of death and rebirth that occur constantly in forests. Forest imagery is included in both the ink jet prints and silkscreen elements with encaustic. I love being able to do free form combinations of silkscreen elements both under and over the surface of the painting, exploring the play between abstraction and representation.
Abstraction can give meaning to thoughts or feelings that cannot be expressed in words. I know that this experience is different for each person looking at the art. For me, as I have worked on this series, I have discovered more personal meaning in my fascination with North Point and the natural world. The water’s edge has become a powerful metaphor for the many journeys taken through life.Looking down at the ancient surface of the bedrock and the water of Lake Michigan, I contemplate both the past and the future.