Artist Profile: JANE ALLEN NODINE

Jane Allen Nodine with some of her encaustic works.


When I began to think about doing artists profiles for this blog, Jane Allen Nodine's name was one of the first ones on my list. I've know Jane since I was in graduate school as we were both beginning to exhibit our work and participate in the art scene in South Carolina. She has always been focused, steady and confident in herself and her work while being as genuine and approachable as can be.


Jane is a Professor of Art and Director of the Curtis R. Harley Art Gallery at the University of South Carolina Upstate. Her work techniques include drawing, painting, design, jewelry-metalsmithing, installation and photography. Her work is well represented in state and regional collections and she was one of four artists selected by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee for the "Shades of Gray" exhibition. This fall, Jane will exhibit in the "225" F Encaustic Encounters Exhibition" at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, North Carolina.




Interview:



Question: At what point in your life did you know that art would be your life's work?



Jane: As a child I realized it. This may sound presumptuous, but I knew from an early age that I wanted to be an artist involved in creating and working with my hands. My father was a residential builder and he did his own drafting work. There was a drafting table, t-squares, drafting pencils and blueprints around, so I saw these as normal everyday tools. My maternal grandmother was very creative and innovative. She had a green thumb, she fished in salt and fresh water, enjoyed wing shooting, enjoyed textile crafts such as tatting, crocheting and quilting, and she was a school teacher having taught all levels of K-12 in her career. My mother recognized my interest in art and enrolled me in private art lessons when I was in the first grade. That was about 1960 and we were doing sand castings, melted crayon paintings, and enameling on copper. These were strong experiences and highly influential on my development and continued participation in art and creative activities.





Trace .021 - Encaustic on panel.



Question: Tell us a little about your studio practice. Specifically, how do you develop new ideas?



Jane: As an art educator with a fulltime position at the Spartanburg campus of USC Upstate, I have to schedule my studio time in blocks that most often falls around holidays and summers. I try to keep Fridays as a studio day, but during school session it often becomes a time to pack and ship work, document and catalogue pieces, or just prep the studio for making new work. The summers and holidays tend to be the most productive for me as it often takes a couple of days to get in the rhythm of working in the studio.




I usually have between ten and twenty pieces in progress at any given time and I have worked that way for many years. Because I am working on panels with encaustic painting, I make a point of keeping a stockpile of panels ready, so when I am in the flow of working, I can paint, and keep painting without interruption. I keep sketchbooks and journals, often too many and with little organization, but I've done this since I was a teenager and I find them important to my documentation information and preparing titles. Ideas for my work come from various sources with a heavy emphasis on nature, but I am also strongly influenced by advertising and popular culture, art history, and reading. I currently have a series of image-based works that parallel the natural abstract series. Both bodies of work influence the other, but the content and intention of each is separate.






Trace .041 - Encaustic on panel.



Question: What, if any, role does technology play in your work?



Jane: I am guessing you specifically mean digital technology, and that has played a large part in my work. I have become fairly proficient over the years using digital technology and teaching courses in the discipline. In the mid 1980's I began using the computer to manipulate scanned images, (that seemed like magic at the time), and later I was doing a body of work I called "digital drawings" that were a blend of photography, drawing in the computer, digital manipulation, and actual mark-making on the printed image. Though they were called digital drawings, they looked like graphite drawings and seemed to be anything but the slick images most associated with the computer. Exactly the effect I wanted to achieve. I still use that digital process today with the encaustic series of image-based works and occasionally with the abstract series. I like being in control of the images I use. I can create or capture an image I have in mind, and then I have the tools to develop or manipulate the image for a personal and original application in my work. I have used found images from time to time, but I most often prefer to create my own.






Trace .034 - Encaustic on panel.



Question: Imagine your "dream show." You get to select the artists (living or dead) whose work will be included along with your own in a specatacular exhibition. Who would they be?




Jane: OMG, this is tooo good. The following would be in my show because I have been so influenced by their work -- no particular order:


Eve Hesse
Richard Diebenkorn
Wayne Thiebaud
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Artemesia Gentileschi
Robert Rauschenberg
Martin Puryear
Jim Dine
Nancy Grossman
Toulouse Lautrec
Chuck Close
Louise Bourgeois
Dorthea Rockburne
Anni Albers
Diane Arbus
Kathe Kollwitz
Barbara Kruger
Maya Yin Lin
Louise Nevelson
Jackie Winsor
Henri Matisse
Constantine Brancusi
Lee Bontecou


This is a tiny selection but I think it represents artists and works that have been significant for me, and it gives an overview of my influences.







Trace .042 - Encaustic on panel.



Question: You have always been an extremely productive artist. How do you balance your studio time with your responsibilities as a teacher, wife and mother?



Jane: WOW. I answered all the other questions right away as the information flowed through my head, and now I will have to organize my thoughts for this final answer.


I am married and I do have a son, now 23 years old. Balancing the duties and commitments of having a family with being a productive artist has had its challenges. There is no map or guide for this journey, and I really had no mentor I could look to for answers on this issue. Mine has been a path I forged based on perception, intuition, passion, commitment, and integrity. I have certainly made compromises in my art for my family, but I have also made compromises in my family life, for the art. At this mid-point in my career and life, I do believe I have been able to manage these effectively, since I am still married to the same person and my son is fun loving, well adjusted, and preparing to graduate from college.


When I finished graduate school, and before I married, the first issue was to set up a studio and continue a regular working schedule similar to what I followed in the grad program. I taught part-time and worked in the studio on a regular basis like any job. Marriage did not affect that working schedule but having a child did. For the first time in my life I did not have long, continuous periods of time to do as I needed or as I pleased. That was difficult, to adjust to what I call a fragmented or mosaic schedule. I had to work in short periods or blocks of time, and there was always the anxiety and potential for interruption. There are years in my professional resume that show little productivity, and that was due to commitments around family life and raising a child. Overall it was important for me to keep my art vision sited to a point on the horizon, and to know at some point I would again be moving forward toward that location. The biggest step in that forward move came when my son began to drive and I was suddenly gifted with larger blocks of time. It was during this period I was able to direct more focus and energy back to my art. I should also point out that during my academic career I have had to sacrifice for both family and making art. Fortunately I have reached a point where I am able to enjoy family, focus on making art, and am productive in teaching.







Trace .048 - Encaustic on panel.



You can see more of Jane's work at janenodine.com.

SHIPPING TUBE IDEAS

It will soon be the time of year that we will hopefully be shipping our work out for display in competitions, shows and exhibitions. I know many of you are able to fold your work to be packed in boxes for shipping. However, due to the dense machine quilting I generally use on my work, folding the pieces creates creases so I roll my work for storage and shipping.

I use two types of materials for my tubes and both can be purchased at your local "big box" home repair store. The first material is PVC plumbing pipe and caps. This pipe is relatively inexpensive and comes in several diameters and weights. Generally I use the 4" pipe.I buy 8 foot lengths which are easily cut to size with a hack saw. You will need 2 end caps and some PVC adhesive. One end will be sealed permanently and the other end will be tapped shut when you are ready to ship. The tubes have worked well but I did have one case where the tube came home to me with half of one end missing so it had really been slammed into something. I suggest you always wrap your work in plastic which helps protect it but will also create some friction inside the tube and helps to keep your work inside the tube. You can just see in the photograph that I write directions on the outside of the tube as to which end to open and I always enclose directions on repacking.

The above picture shows one of this type tube which has been used several times. Each time I send it out I clean it up. I remove as much of the old labeling and tape as I can and cover the other with black tape.

The second type material I use is the heavy paper tubing used for casting concrete forms. You can just see one of these in the upper left corner of the top picture.


This tube is called a Quik Tube and is 8" x 48". Interestingly they come in nested sizes but they are all listed as being 8". What this means is that there will be several nested inside one another. This allows you to use one for the "container" and a slightly larger one for the "top". Look again at the first photograph and you can just see the top in place on the larger container.


Using the tubes as a template, I draw and then cut two disk from plywood. I cut them using a small band saw. The disk are then inserted into the ends of the tubes and are attached with screws all around. The outside is then painted with Kilns to cover the text. I make the "top" about 16" long so that I have some flexibility as to the length of the item I can ship. It would be possible to use the entire length of both tubes if you wished. I line the inside of the container with plastic, place the work (which has also been wrapped in plastic) inside, put the "top" on and tape top on. Once again, I write directions on the outside of the tube as to where to open and I enclose directions as to repacking.

These tubes have also proved to be sturdy. I usually ship FED EX and I have had them returned with the footprints of handlers clearly visible on the tube. So far, the tubes have stood up to this treatment.