Jan Hurd

When I was a kid all I wanted to do was read and draw and run around in the woods with my dog.  Funny thing is that at the opposite end of my life that is exactly what I am doing. After college and graduate school in library science, it became clear to me that really, I wanted to be an artist, so I began working in clay. For thirty five or so years I enjoyed all the aspects of making and selling three-dimensional work until the physical costs of smoky firings got to be too much. I sold all my equipment and began to draw again, beginning with botanical illustration classes at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture. In the last couple of years I've branched out from plants into humans and other animals, and am exploring all kinds of techniques for getting the images onto paper, including watercolor, graphite, colored pencil, and pastel. Through all this work nature has been my subject. From wall-hangings of ravens and salmon to smoke-fired grizzly bears to paintings of stems, seeds, and flowers, and now the ravens return to my work along with sheep, chickens, and chipmunks.