My work reveals a passionate exploration of primitive cultures and the interpretive documentation of my artistic journey. Organic forms, colors, and textures define my style and ground my expression. This body of work is called Primal Fusion. It portrays and ancient art form presented in a modern medium; pigment and carving translated in glass powder and frit. The element of fire intrigues and seduces me throughout this exploration in fused glass.

Jane also currently has a handful of limited edition prints on archival paper available now at Obelisk Home.

This show is about the relationship between mother and daughter, the language they share and the ways they speak to their experience through large scale abstract painting. Much like the relationship between mother and daughter, the creative process does not stem from calculations or formulas but by reaching instinctive levels of reaction and response. Informed by their close bond, the painters’ works record a dialog between the two—taking cues from one another, exploring and negotiating their personal journeys.

Both artists draw from organic and figurative forms.
Donohue’s work includes figures and loosely interpreted coastal and cityscapes, along with classical, harmonic abstract expressionism.
Lewis-Smith, whose abstract expressionist perspective both predates and colors her experience of motherhood, ventures here into more movement-oriented themes, like her momentum series and windows and doors.

Although creating is not always magical, there is a point of quickening in the process that gives life to a piece. Being sensitive to these moments is magical. This magic is exemplified in the relationship between mother and daughter as they nurture and encourage their distinct journeys, separately and together.

Nothing influences me more than the beauty and mystery of the natural world. I am fortunate to live in the country, surrounded by a spring fed lake and two ponds. These waters have abundantly provided me with inspiration both visually and metaphorically.
The ever-changing reflection of the sky, an ephemeral slant of light, an unexpected color,
the movements and ripples from the wind. What is on the surface, and just like our subconscious, what lies underneath?
I am also drawn to the disorientation of the landscape as it is mirrored in the water, like
an entrance to a dreamy parallel world. This body of work is an homage to the sublime. The awe and wonderment of that moment in nature that provides a peaceful and sacramental calm. That moment when we feel included in that wonderment.
If I could evoke even just a spark of that in my paintings, it would bring me great joy.

Over the past year or so, my creativity has been put to the test. After dealing with a large amount of adversarial energy, my focus recently has been on happiness; I wanted to paint happiness. To do this, I needed to unplug and plug myself back into life. A restarting if you will. So, I have redirected my thoughts to “connectivity” in personifying these paintings. I’ve intended to create what I refer to as community. Lines may vary, widths may vary, but together they create a harmonious unity. And this I where I have found happiness.

My passion for painting is rooted in color. In each of these works, color is being analyzed. Studied. Creating a madness within. I am interested in color in regards to light; how certain colors can be placed next to each other to create an illusion of illumination. I am interested in how lines of color can create form and mix optically. How colors can create composition and the effect of refracted light and reflective color. These works embody what I love about painting.

Growing up I always went for the woods. There is something about being away from the city and cars that helps quiet my mind and allows me to delve deeply into my inner world.
Painting has been the means by which I reveal how I think and understand life. My style has naturally developed over a lifetime.
I paint familiar landscapes but the work is not so much a representation of Nature as an illustration for the story I tell.
I look to Nature for truth.
As an artist I strive to create a thought-provoking physical object that records the musings of my individual mind.
So, I set the scene, design the set, add the characters and call, “action”. You might think of the painting as a visual poem or a page from a story.
The mystery always remains.

Painting is a push and pull of visual weight that seems to give the painting a life without exact representation. It starts with color, and moves with a mark or gesture to begin the story.
Painting has always been the language I find closest to my own internal dialogue.
Most of my paintings are about relationships or rhythms. I like the open space where the viewer can add their interpretation to the landscape or setting. I do not begin to have the answers. I am seeking to give the viewer a choice, to put their story into the picture.
The abstractions are again a push and pull of the gesture. How does one color play off its compliment? The exhibition is a balance of abstracts with elements of figures. The series is composed of mostly large canvases with smaller more moderately priced work.

An erratic collection of memories and dreams. Similar experiences with different interpretations. When you drive down a rural road, do you see the same things I see? I would imagine that you encounter the same things but process them in your own unique way. Just like the stories we’re told through generations; same content, different take away. This collection reveals the beauty of interpretation. What feels familiar can be beautifully individual.

Surrendering to the time cycle our sun provides can be a gratifying yet cruel human experience. There is importance in understanding our moments in the sun, the light shown upon our form is a gift rather than a routine-managed, laborious human task merely clocking the significance of our existence. Reflecting on the shadows our own shape casts on the earth or walls that surround us is an introspective exercise that can lead our actions to a sharper aesthetic contour of the image we hope to portray as time openly tracks our actions. Intuitively looking to nature for solace, I find beauty in the instinctual movements of animals, insects, and the growth of flora. Capturing the essence of shape, line, and light through the oldest and most ancient of art mediums, encaustic painting and the cyanotype photographic process, I am giving homage to the purest of living organisms that inhabit my world. Both artistic processes are spontaneous and rely on light and heat for materialize survival. Feeling a connection to the spirit of animals or the growth of a seed planted reminds me that tracking time while observing all living shadows and shapes, provides a feeling of gratitude and connection to the nature of being human.

“Jane Parker’s paintings and drawings richly avoid the sin of description while evoking a plethora of riches. They lead to a specificity of place and object only possible in the ambiance of the imagination—a place somewhere between music and a walk in the woods. Her work is to be entered rather than seen—experienced rather than admired. She consistently eschews artifice in favor of a reality that is less provable than palpable.” —Malki Sadeq, 2013

Marveling at my finds during walks in the woods,
I started collecting specimens to study with the intention
of making them the subject of this show.

It was a good time to work close to home, quietly, innocently and looking
to the earth and nature for peace of mind.

The small paintings are studies
so I might understand and practice painting the subject and form.

They are otherworldly and at the same time human.

"The inspiration I draw from nature comes from living in the Ozarks most of my life. Through my work, I engage in an ongoing dialogue with nature, sometimes even hiding text in the landscapes I depict. My view is at once romantic and melancholic as I consider nature’s uncertain future. Surreal elements emerge as I combine representation with the imaginary; flowers seem to dance, birds seek love, trees ask us to look. My paintings deepen my relationship with landscape—and the more my reverence grows, the more sacred that connection becomes." - Lil Olive

Center stage in my art is the figure—an object in motion, as if the figure is caught, just for an instant; a glimpse, a snapshot before the gesture is complete. I’m not in search of exact representation. I’m intent rather on provoking a sense of tension or intensity. These plus color, bring the emotion to the painting. Whether spatial or expressionistic, the implied relationship between figures is intended to arouse curiosity. Painting is like a freeze frame. It helps both the viewer and the painter to pause—if just for a second as we enter into that two dimensional space. Most of the time the stage is imaginary or based on dreams and memories.

Insatiable visual hoarding has led me to a tactile realization that moments in nature need to be spent more mindfully:  instantaneous yet full of sensory meditation.  Bits of beauty rich with colors, textures, and sounds of nature flood my imagination when remembering a moment spent in Earth’s ever-changing environment.  Traveling to new places or stepping outside into the familiarity of my own backyard, I’m always inspired by nature.  Our landscape, its bits and pieces transform yet stay ever ready in our minds and at our digital fingertips, like a personal binary code for our human experiences.  “terra:  Memory Bits”, is a series of paintings found through traversing thousands of frozen moments that have been digitally saved, hoarded, and quickly stockpiled away but longing for another breath of organic life that accompanies one more fresh, new look.

These paintings are inspired from digital photographs taken of nature and then re-imagined through organic tactile colors, textures, lines, and smells.  Each composition hides a faint hint of the painting’s title in binary code becoming a relevant pattern or motif of numbers, much like our visually literacy and understanding of how we weave beauty and facts into our daily lives which are married by nature and technology.

Jane Parker’s third solo show at Obelisk Home, titled “Time Capsule”, after one of the paintings in the show, encompasses new work from 2017-18. These evocative new paintings and drawings offer an atmospheric presence within a pictorial space structured by line and color. “I paint what I would like to see, with no specific idea of what that might be.

“I fully expect to be seduced by the unexpected.” – Jane Parker

Taking her present conceptions of what it’s like living in the Bible Belt today and comparing them with her childhood perspective of what it was like living in it then - Rosie Winstead searches for a common thread between the opposing points of view. With hopes of finding better understanding, she discovers that the only way she can try and make sense of it all is through the best of what each side has to offer – humor, and a childlike sense of unconditional love.

For this special show, friends and artists Jane Parker and Betty Parnell decided to exhibit their work together as a natural result of sharing their process with each other. Jane and Betty are local artists who work from their home studios, and because of this, an important part of their art making has been maintaining a dialogue regarding their work in progress for several years now. Both artists are inspired by their surroundings and are committed to surprise discoveries as they work in order to determine how and when each painting or drawing finds its voice. This partnership with process keeps them intrigued as their artworks evolve.

Shown are works by both Jane Parker and Betty Parnell from 2020.