Name: Jan Ayers
Email: keylarker@yahoo.com
What type(s) of art do you like to create?
The answer to this question is probably supposed to be ‘some kind of medium”, but I like all media. Even ones that, five years ago, I avoided - like ‘found art’. The truth is that I like to create all kinds of art, in all kinds of media, so the answer to the question actually is, “I like to use painting. drawing, and sculpture to try to connect human beings. If a piece can elicit a laugh, or an edgy darkness, or a “Yes - I’ve seen a landscape like that”, then I feel that the total human consciousness has been drawn a bit closer. I suppose I use art to say “Hey! Look at this!” and if anyone says “I get it!” then I feel successful.
Where did you learn to do what you do?
Again, a trick question! What you probably want is that I studied art curriculae at ETSU and at UTA, and took workshops, and modeled for workshops when I couldn’t afford to sign up for them. So art has been a formal, on-going study since I was 10. But I learned to do what I do, and how I do it, by observing, and by making a sincere effort to get at the most basic truths about the universe.
Tell us about your most important projects.
The Collaborage project was pivotal. And the Henderson Art Project. Thinking about it, unhappily, the projects I consider now to be the most important are the ones still inside my head. Apparently, as soon as a piece manifests, I’m over it and on to the next thing - my art is a journey towards something, and not a physical pile of accomplishments. Maybe I need to take a pill.
Describe your studio.
I have an 8’x 10’ corner in a friend’s manufacturing warehouse in Richardson. It’s cramped, and what I need isn’t there but is at the house - but it’s all mine, and I can take my dog. Plus, my friend has really cool tools.
What type of music do you listen to while you work?
Rock or classical.
Where do you find your inspiration?
How much time do you have? I am inspired by nature. By the insides of forms, by negative space, by conflicting juxtapositions in nature. By textures, by the way bodies and trees and insects are constructed. By human emotion and symbology, and by the way people avoid or reconstruct the universe, and then by how that construct affects the people around them. And lately, by random found objects that have no business being where I found them, so that I’m forced to tell myself a story about that.
Do you have any advice for other artists?
Have a firm grip on the basics, then break some rules, don’t be afraid to fail, then go back and practice the basics again.
Do you belong to any art organizations?
In the past, the TVAA, the PSSW, and now just the TSA.
Do you have a website?
http://www.janayers.blogspot.com/
http://www.keylarker.blogspot.com/
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