Some people paint, some people think, some people re-invent, but Jane James; she pots. This is the third year that James is exhibiting her artwork at the National Arts Festival.
Some people paint, some people think, some people re-invent, but Jane James; she pots. This is the third year that James is exhibiting her artwork at the National Arts Festival.
“I am very excited to be part of the Festival during this World Cup year,” she says. Pottery has been a part of James’ life since the 80s. Since then she has formed an intense relationship with her art. James grew up in Johannesburg and completed a degree in Fine Art at Wits and later Unisa. After a few relocations and a few years later, she settled in Grahamstown to complete her teaching diploma at Rhodes University.
Twenty three years later she is still happily living in the City of Saints. James is particularly fascinated by the stylistic resemblance her pots have with one another.
Sometimes, rather unintentionally, the patterns and forms of her pots look like each other with only a minor colour or shape difference.
This coincidence gave birth to the title of her latest exhibition: Conversations in Clay. She describes her art as a “deep connection with the earth and a need to invoke that in some material form.”
To her, clay provides the ideal material with which to do this. “I love working with the actual colour of clay,” she says. Jane uses earthy, African colours including terracotta, ochre and mustards with touches of black.
She also plays around with glazing in shades of blue and soft green. She takes her inspiration from architecture and the female figure, although she says her work is not intentional but subliminal and subtle.
Jane is also a reflexologist, which according to her is closely connected to art. “Art is always the flipside to healing,” she says.
After teaching at Carinus Art Centre on and off for 17 years, she now offers pottery classes at her home while squeezing in some massages and reiki for her clients. Proving her sentiment that the artistic mind is also a healing mind.
