Jane House

I have studied and practiced art throughout my life. At a very young age, I was exposed to the art and culture of Central America, West Africa, and Eastern and Western Europe. At Stanford University’s campus in Tours, France, I studied drawing at the local art conservatory and began a sketchbook of our student travels in France. While working as a professional actress, I continued to draw and paint while waiting to go onstage.

Painting: Until fall 2014, many of my watercolors were realistic depictions of my photographs. My painting over the last few years reflects my exhilaration with an exploration of the power of one’s imagination, completely independent of any photographic image. Donna Diamond’s workshop on the creative imagination has strongly influenced this trend.

Sculpture: While I have drawn and painted throughout my life, I did not really begin my exciting journey in sculpture until Summer 2015. My explorations in clay include masks, clay pots, and figurines. Four works from 2016–17 show my interest in a mythic-aquatic theme, Greek gods associated with water and water creatures. I try not to plan what I’m going to make. I let my hands “do the walking.” What starts out as a pinchpot may become a face, or a pot on its side in the shape of a woman, or a piece of driftwood. I try to feel and see what my hands are creating; or I let my imagination see what’s in the clay. For the Poseidon sculpture, for example, I had in mind a powerful Poseidon with a trident, but eventually fish appeared and Poseidon became kindly rather than fierce. I don’t follow a specific image that’s superimposed by my mind or a drawing I’ve made. And if I end up not liking my creation after an hour’s work, I let go and begin again.

I currently create drawings and work on my sculpture at my home studio in Riverdale and at the Riverdale Senior Center, where I’ve been studying since 2015 with Bronx artists Donna Diamond (creative imagination) and Rochelle Aruti (sculpture).

Exhibits and Displays
Prezant Gallery, Bronx, in 1995;
Cross-Bronx Vintage Artists Gallery, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017
Riverdale Senior Center “Creative Imagination” art show, 2016
Riverdale YM–YWHA (beginning May 2017), sculpture display cases.

Juried Prizes
Vintage Art Show, watercolor: honorable mention 2015, first prize 2016, third prize 2017.
Vintage Art Show, sculpture, first prize 2017

Other
I worked as a professional actress in film and television and on the stage and am a proud member of the Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA unions. My numerous translations of twentieth-century Italian plays are included in anthologies published by Columbia University Press, Edwin Mellen Press, and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, City University of New York.

Media: Sculpture, watercolor/tempera, acrylics.

Visit my website.