Jane Palmer
AQ is our series of hardcover catalogs celebrating extraordinary women artists. Available on Amazon. Visit the AQ Catalog Webpage to learn more.
AQ Volume IV artist Jane Palmer is a collage artist based in Reading, Pennsylvania. She meticulously hand-cuts paper images from books and magazines, using logic, serendipity, and intuition to combine them in ways that make a new kind of sense. She is influenced by solitude, family, and the longing to be seen, nature, Buddhism, and the experience of being a woman. Palmer’s choice of analog collage stems from its accessibility, minimal environmental impact, and inherent ability to disrupt perceived reality. In her work, realistic images are juxtaposed in unexpected ways, challenging expectations, while color and pattern come together to form lyrical, intriguing, and often mysterious works. Her process is meditative, an evolving practice of attention, experimentation, and letting go. Palmer's work is part of the Kanyer Art Collection, published in Wilder Collage's Roam and Kanyer's Traditions, and has been exhibited at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
www.papercut21.com
What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?
There are artists who make art and those who don’t, and for most of my life, I was one who didn’t. I’ve always been drawn to color and design, but I didn’t believe being an artist was a viable path. Instead, I built a career in marketing communications, helped raise three wonderful humans, and became a community organizer when the need arose, fighting for justice and a government that works for all of us. A few years ago, deep into retirement, I fell in love with collage and it was like, where have you been all my life? I've cultivated my sources, honed my cutting techniques, experimented with adhesives, substrates, and scale, and joined a couple of online art communities to continue my education. I’m just getting started. You could say I’m a late bloomer but I’ve bloomed in lots of ways throughout my life, and this is the time for art.
Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?
Complicated Dreaming began with the blue transparent house (Do Ho Suh, Home within Home within Home within Home within Home, 2013), which got me thinking about the architecture of memory. The hint of purple in the house led to the lovers, who of course wanted to be in this dream, and the ivory body led to the languid spill of a silk gown. The radial lines were key to the design and helped with the placement of a wider cast of characters: the man with the hat, reminiscent of a childhood trauma, a hummingbird to offset his threat, and the disembodied bird legs to hold down the corner. It took hours to cut out that spindly flower, but I loved how the filigree paired with the train. Fruit Bowl came together like a jigsaw puzzle, with the part in the woman’s hair pointing to the baby, the fruit of her womb, while a bird and a bee hovered over her nipple, and Bacchus toasted the scene. It’s an ode to feminine abundance.
What was the most challenging part of your path so far? How are you navigating this obstacle?
The challenge is being at ease with not knowing where I’m going in a world that expects a fast, linear progression from point A to profit. I make collage as a form of communication, discovering what I want to say as each piece takes shape, and this process is slow and convoluted. I’m also working in a medium that is often trivialized and undervalued, but this is changing as collage gains wider recognition and online and in-person communities lend support. I navigate by taking in only what serves my art practice and ignoring the rest.
What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?
It’s everything. For me, the process of making a collage is inseparable from exploration and experimentation. I’ve learned that to start out with much of a plan is deadly because then I’m up in my head and not paying attention to what the images want to do. But collage, unlike painting, lets you add, subtract, and rearrange things until the moment you stick it all down with adhesive. I might try dozens of assemblies before a piece feels right.
Do you have any start or stop rituals before creating?
Pantone makes a nifty set of 100 postcards, each featuring a solid color, and I begin every day by making a quick collage with one of the cards. Today was Pantone #493, a deep pink, and I paired it with a fragment of a winking face and an antique lotus flower.
What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?
Pay attention, do your best, and be open to the outcome. It’s a beautiful world.
Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.
"We are here to abet creation and to witness to it, to notice each other's beautiful face and complex nature so that creation need not play to an empty house." — Annie Dillard
"Be here now." — Ram Dass
