Jan Owen
Belfast, Maine

Sunflower

acrylic, paper, Tyvek

12 x 151/4 closed, 45 x 151/4 open

© 2011 - $950

I love the gestural lines and pattern of hand lettered text which now faces the seductive, shiny beauty of technology. We trust binary code and the web for our communication and interaction with others. The poems included in this book remind us there are things we should do while we are young and not virtually.

 

Hand lettered on paste paper with woven Tyvek; hanging accordion fold book with case.

Each Day

acrylic, paste paper, Tyvek

111/2 x 131/2 closed, 45 x 131/2

© 2011 - $950

When we’ve hardly begun summer, the days grow shorter. The poems selected for this hanging book are about words and writing in the darkness.

 

Hand lettered on paste decorated paper; hanging accordion fold book. Text by Neruda, Tagliabue, Levertov, Whitman, Stafford

Silence of the Night

sumi ink and gold acrylic, Hollytex paper

15 x 3 closed, 141/2 x 43 x 21/2 open

© 2011 - $475

I used several layers of white and black painted Hollytex to create a sense of layers of silence that Thoreau describes.

 

Hand lettered on several layers of Hollytex; hanging scroll. Text by Thoreau, Neruda, Rilke.

Brush Palimpsest

sumi ink, Hollytex, paper

131/4 x 93/8 closed, 131/4 x 20 open

© 2008 - SOLD

Writing on translucent pages of Hollytex with brushes and pens allows a beautiful layers of marks and lines. The words seem permanent and fragile.

 

Hand lettered on several layers of Hollytex; and paper; 8 page codex with paper case. Text by Goethe, Tagliabue, Paz

 

Jan Owen is an artist living in Belfast, Maine. Her work incorporates hand lettering, brush marks, paste decorated papers, and words by various authors into hanging books or panels. Her work is shown internationally and is in the collections of the Library of Congress, National Museum of Women in the Arts, and university special collections.