Jane E Porter

Jane E and her brother Guyan were brought up by wolves in a remote part of the north east of Scotland. As adolescents they were slowly introduced to society, teaching each other to read and write and eventually going to school in Aberdeen. On leaving school, Jane E travelled extensively and then went on to study psychology, hypnotherapy and sociology before completing a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. She is now a practicing artist and designer and has exhibited independently and in group shows in the UK and the US. She has works held in the UK, US, Australia and The Middle East. “I question nearly every day, why I am an artist and what I have to offer.  It is hard to articulate without sounding like a cliché but it is a calling, an obsessive compulsion.  I’m inspired and perplexed by modern culture; the media, celebrity, obsession, addiction, politics, war, abuse and the injustices in society and I make art about it. If my work offers you something new to look at and stimulates you in some way, it gives positive meaning to my obsession. By combining painting with digital media and a range of materials, I tell a story.  The story the image conveys is created from the contents of my analytical mind and the information that is fed into it.  The story is also about you, the audience and how you relate to it.  The importance of the narrative is as much your interpretation as it is my creation and  my intended meaning is less important than what you take from it. My work has been described as dark and depressing, mmm perhaps, but it is combined with humour and irony.  In some ways it is very direct and I have been accused of being too literal, however, behind the veil of the literal, there are layers of the undisclosed.  There are usually figures in my paintings because I am interested in how people behave and live their lives in, what I see as, a chaotic world.  Art, like people, often requires time to be understood. I am forever learning.”