Gallery

The series of images in this portfolio called the “Jane series” began after watching the film “What Ever Happen to Baby Jane” (1962) starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.  I began thinking about how the story line circles around relationships of the two sisters but at the same time focuses on one woman, Bette Davis’s “Jane”, as daughter, sister and confidante, all while being a villainess, conniving, cheating, murderous, character, which is not the typical female that girls are told to aspire to be.

When I think of the name “Jane” as a character from film and literature there are a number of women that appear in my mind.  The most opposite of the “Jane” as performed by Bette Davis is the “Jane” of the children’s books “Dick and Jane”, that I read as a kid.  I thought about how pure and white both “Jane’s” were depicted. The “Jane” of innocence made well thought out adventures, along with her partner Dick, leaving little need for imagination. The simplicity and complicity of these two Jane’s collided in my head and out came the beginning of this series.

I also find that I am drawn to research women in history named Jane. More specifically I am interested in the Jane’s of the world that have fought for social, political and cultural equity of women.  As I find out more about their lives, the more I use their past to create a fantasy of how I view and interpret their living legacy.

Film and literature seem to merge and move about as social and cultural attitudes adjust over time.  With my work, used as a propaganda tool, I provide an opportunity to read the sliding scale of mass media’s depiction of women (the feminine) and the real life experiences of how girls and women are asked to perform in their daily lives.  The key to the final image you see is to counter the traditional, stereotypical feminine image into a nonconforming state of reality.