Portfolio – Assemblage – From MatriArt

Momery (2002) This assemblage of personal items marked the end of Jan’s daily grieving for her mother’s death from breast cancer. Created 15 years after the event, it considers the fading of pain and familiarity over time, and the importance of artifacts in maintaining memory. Making art played an essential role in Jan’s dealings with anger and loss, and though she was criticized by some faculty during Masters degree coursework, Jan persisted and presented her personal discoveries in her thesis exhibition. This required courage and conviction, perhaps more than those artists who veil their message in abstract, more ambiguous imagery.

Our Lady of Obsessive Compulsion (2001) detail This rosewindow of smoked cigarettes, candy wrappers, cookies, beer bottle caps, wine corks and gilded fastfood cutlery encircles the portrait of a diminuative, self-indulgent lady, framed by her ashtray.

Our Lady of Obsessive Compulsion (2001) This rosewindow of smoked cigarettes, candy wrappers, cookies, beer bottle caps, wine corks and gilded fastfood cutlery encircles the portrait of a diminuative, self-indulgent lady, framed by her ashtray.

Corset Drawer The day that a woman decides to no longer submit to torturous conventions for appearance, is a day of liberation.

DogMa Feeds No One This cast concrete lawn ornament guarded the door of the gallery. Jan painted the tongue silver, added a brasiere of pointed copper, and gilded the pedestal. Around the neck of the DogMa is a collar with the inscription “Dog Ma Feeds No One.” After her graduation, Jan left the sculpture in the Master’s students studios, a gift of support to future students who might feel oppressed by a few notoriously implacable professors.

Empty Nest “It used to be that I would have killed for a little peace and quiet, just a little time to myself. Now I wonder, where did everyone go?” – Jan

Pain for Appearance: Tatoos (5” x 19” x 14”)

Pain for Appearance: Blonde Ambition (39” x 17” x 12”)