Jane Newman resided in Banff for almost 40 years, her life revolving around family, community, wilderness pursuits and the arts. She is a practicing visual artist (30 years) shifting between assemblage and mixed media with frequent forays into both literary and performance art projects.
A skilled facilitator, Newman has taught various creative disciplines for public, private and not-for profit sectors. She worked as Creative Faculty for 15 years in The Banff Centre’s leadership programs.
In addition to her decades long artistic career, Newman has applied her creative energies in a variety of work scenarios including establishing her own company designing vegetated roofs and native plant gardens, working with Outward Bound introducing new Canadians to the Rocky Mountains, serving on Banff Town Council and co-founding and operating the Banff Volunteer Centre.
Now residing on Cortes Island in BC, Newman is exploring the coastal environment and practicing artmaking in her new Twilight Studio, which she and her partner built. To come to know the local lakes and the ocean more intimately, over the past two years Newman challenged herself to swim year-round. Presently, Newman is the Director/Curator at the Cortes Island Museum & Archives.
“The nature of my art-making varies in form, moving from mixed media to assemblage and to book-making and writing. Currently in my studio, I confront blank paper with paint, brushes, thread and time. I muse with nature and the atrocities of the world and wonder always about new ways to begin again.”
“Mixed media is at the foundation of my artistic practice, frequently involving forms of hand or machine stitchery. I continue to experiment with an array of materials I’ve collected over 30 years of practicing as a visual artist. The assemblage work expresses my relationship with aspects of our disposable society that both delight and disturb me. Choosing action over paralysis, I collect appealing detritus and discarded objects working to expose their beauty.”