You may just be wondering where my life began? Imagine a very young Jane running cross-country through dairy farms. My upbringing was classic, rural down-to-earth, small-town Aotearoa New Zealand. I grew up in a multicultural family (Maltese Mother and NZ/English Father). Cartoons were an early favourite pastime, and I have sketched for as long as I can remember. As I have grown, so has my artwork, and it continues to be a work in progress, infinitely striving to "seek and find". I have always been drawn to sketching with pen and pencil; enjoying the simplicity and the flexibility. I have worked with paper, canvas, plastics, glass and wood. I now continue to experiment with digital media and am transforming with watercolour and stained glass digital production. 
 

I feel very grateful to have had many international adventures, including living and travelling around the world (including Snowboard instructing for seven back-to-back winters in my younger years)—and this love of nature still fuels my creative process today. I studied graphic design after high school and since then (1999) I have worked as a commercial graphic designer and illustrator for over 20 years.

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Between 1999 - 2015 I focused on graphic design and illustration for products you can feel, wear, use, and eat (mostly merchandise, outdoor clothing and food for pets and humans), with packaging, signage, branding, identity development, marketing, and advertising. This included operating designjane Ltd. as a full-time freelance designer and artist with a worldwide client base from 2007 - 2015. During this time, I also completed several commission-based projects and have also sold many personal artwork pieces using wood, paper, print, and digital media. 

 

During 2015 - 2024 my design focus shifted to working with a spirituality and Christian/Catholic education focus (schools, parishes, charitable organisations). 

Between 2015 - 2018, as part of my SOSJ noviciate, several commissions for graphic design and fine art-based projects were completed. Then after my first profession I had the privilege to work full-time at MSJ Milperra, NSW for three years (2018 - 2020), taking the lead on design, marketing, and in a pastoral care role. After moving back to Aotearoa New Zealand I worked as a graphic designer and illustrator for NCRS for three years (2021 - 2024), leading the illustration, design, and branding for the new RE Curriculum and other documents for NCRS. It was wonderful to work as part of the Te Kupenga/NCRS team.

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I am now studying full time Feb—Nov towards a degree in counselling. I continue to work on artwork projects for schools and parishes as a ministry as time permits. I am particularly interested in continuing to work with schools to develop artwork; collaborating with students and staff to create a visual story of how God is alive in their community today (especially through stained glass). We never journey alone, artwork is community. Through tragedy and joy, it's fair to say that my life has taken some unexpected turns, and I now see all experiences as transformative gifts. I am grateful for all, and believe that we can all find God in beauty, goodness and truth. Everyone is welcome, and included no matter sexuality, race, age, and/or history. Everyone is welcome. 

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Shalom

~ Jane 

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"Our creativity can thus only be an outcome of communion: it is not so much the achievement of a great individual genius, but rather the fruit of a great friendship. In other words, it is the fruit of love. As Christian communicators we are called to bear witness to a style of communication that is not just based on the individual, but on a way of community-building and belonging. The best way to convey content is to put together the voices of those who love that content. Working together as a team, making space for diverse talents, backgrounds, capacities, and rhythms, co-creating beauty in a “symphonic creativity,” is actually the most beautiful witness that we are really children of God, redeemed from being concerned only with ourselves and open to an encounter with others." (68) ~ Towards Full Presence (Dicastery for Communication 2023)
 

"...there is a need to let the light of hope shine in that darkness, in the midst of our selfishness and indifference. Help us to glimpse the light, the beauty that saves." ~ Pope Francis Address to Artists (23 June 2023)

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This, then, is your task as poets, storytellers, filmmakers and artists: to give life, flesh and verbal expression to all that humanity experiences, feels, dreams and endures, thus creating harmony and beauty. This “evangelical” task also helps us come to a deeper understanding of God, as the great poet of humanity. Will they criticize you? Fine, bear the burden of criticism, but also strive to learn something from it. Yet never stop being original and creative. Never lose the wonder of being alive."  ~ Pope Francis (27 May 2023)

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