Tangled, Acrylic on Canvas, 12” x 48” ©2019Janet Hegman Shier
Please scroll down to see examples of my paintings and books.
After decades of teaching about the life and art of some of my favorite artists (notably: M. Beckmann, F. Marc, M. Chagall, V. Kandinsky, P. Klee, G. Münter, and C. Salomon), I began painting, myself. My first teacher was Canadian Artist, Kristyn Watterworth, who encouraged me to follow my instincts, to dive in, and to keep going. The experience of having a teacher like Kristyn was transformative, and it gave me the permission and the confidence to do bolder experimentation (something I had always encouraged my own students to do on stage!) with my own art and teaching. Now, I work every day with acrylics, graphite crayon and charcoal, and ink, making large and small paintings on canvas, as well as small “fairy tale” paintings on various surfaces (e.g., cereal boxes, junk mail, business cards and tea bags). Almost everything I paint reveals hidden worlds, full of creatures protecting, searching, or looking, with images suggestive of language, memory, and surprises. I want viewers to look closely, to find these elements, and imagine their stories.
For me, the process of creating makes me constantly shift between painting intuitively and looking closely at the language the images embody. As with all improvisation, this is the process of acting on emerging patterns. I often paint over earlier work because I love the way layers of the past peek through. Currently, I am working very small, making 3” by 3” paintings on recycled surfaces that are painted on both sides—these can be bound into miniature books or they can be easily framed. I like that these can be sent through the mail at a time when mailing a larger package via the post office can be challenging (due to the current Covid-19 situation). It is easy to send a small world to others and it may arrive just when they need it!
Since all of my work is intuitive, a message is often revealed to me only after I have completed a painting. Maybe that is why I paint. —Janet Hegman Shier
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New short video (2.5 minutes) of paintings and a book I made recently for a friend in honor of her weaving, her research, story-telling, and writing about her Finnish roots. January 18, 2023
