Painter, sculptor, and printmaker Jane Rosen has dedicated her career to exploring
the laws of nature. On the one hand, Rosen's work is complex in its search for
a thread of continuity that runs throughout all life forms. Her artistic dialogue
is equally multi-dimensional, as it combines the traditional ideas of such artists
as Leonardo da Vinci and a post-minimalist rejection of "clean" shapes and textures.
At the same time, Rosen is committed making her art accessible to all. Although she
does not necessarily intend to create uplifting art, she wants it to be meaningful.
So important to Rosen was her investigation of nature that she left her native New
York ten years ago to live on a ranch in California. She sought to immerse herself
in an environment "where nature is larger than culture." According to Rosen, our
daily encounters with cultural symbols override such natural instincts as knowing
the contours of the human body. Therefore, Rosen attempts to reconnect with her
instincts by not just simply drawing the human figure as she sees it, but as if
she were actually touching it. By experiencing the human form on more than one
level, she better understands her own being and communicates with the viewer
about how his or her being may relate to it.
Often, her work also incorporates animal figures, for which "animal nature [acts
as a] key to understanding our own nature." As she creates the figures with her
hands, the process of art-making inevitably engages a kind of understanding that
stretches beyond regular cognition. It is this heightened state of awareness that
leads Rosen to view animals and humans as though they share the same essence.
For Rosen, art is a language through which she can explore these questions that her
mind alone cannot fully grasp. In the process, she hopes to inspire and activate
the viewer to contemplate life's possibilities.
For more information on Jane Rosen, please go to her website:
www.janerosen.com.
