Paris Junior College will hold a reception from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4, in the Foyer Gallery for guest artist Jane Cornish Smith.
“I make paintings and sculpture with an expanse of materials,” said Smith. “Encaustic, cold wax medium, paper, plaster, textiles, paint, and other media are painted, crocheted, or collaged into two-dimensional and three-dimensional work. The artworks begin as thin layers and build up to textural surfaces that are often figurative or reference the environment. In this exhibition, “Iterations of Nature in Wax,” a pushing of beeswax and other materials represents a constant movement, liberty, openness, and traversing of boundaries where through landscape and nature references, we are free to move.
Originally from Canada, Dallas area-based artist Smith’s nomadic childhood, along with her artist mother, fostered an appreciation for creativity from a young age. She produces paintings and sculpture with a diversity of materials and subject matter, with a focus on cold wax medium and encaustic. Usually figurative or environmental in nature, her work often reveals human vulnerabilities, with the goal of providing viewers with self-reflective opportunities.
Smith has attended artist residencies at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy; Vermont Studio Center; and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts; and earned Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Liberal Arts degrees from Southern Methodist University as well as a Master of Fine Arts from Texas A&M University-Commerce (now East Texas A&M University – Commerce).
An award-winning artist, Smith’s work hangs in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Africa, as part of the Art in Embassies Program; University of Texas at Tyler; Texas A&M University-Commerce; Dallas College – Brookhaven, Farmers Branch, Texas; the Museum of Encaustic Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; the Tenby Museum and Art Gallery in Wales, U.K.; the Cancer Support Community of North Texas; and others. She enjoys curating, conducting workshops, teaching at Texas A&M University-Commerce, and making art from her studio in rural Lone Oak, Texas.
“We are honored to have Jane Cornish Smith as a guest artist exhibiting at PJC. Her work is a visual delight of color and rich texture,” said Lena Spencer, PJC art faculty member. “It captivates you with a familiar feeling, a harmonious vision of nature. She will also share her incredible knowledge and experience of cold wax medium with local high school students as they attend a high school Art Day workshop hosted by PJC.”
The Foyer Gallery is located on the southeast corner of the PJC campus and is accessed from Collegiate Drive, south of Clarksville Street.
