Jane Skafte
A native of Illinois, Skafte earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Fibers and MA in Textile Design from Syracuse University. Navigating the gulf between decorative and fine art, she drew inspiration from Sonia Delaunay and Anni Albers-- women who had renown as decorative artists, who also made significant contributions as fine artists.
Throughout Jane’s career she has worked creatively with product design. Her first profession as a textile designer led her to Lenox China in New Jersey to create commercial art for tableware. She later produced museum reproductions for the Smithsonian, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Museum Store, and products developed from 18th century archeological finds, sold at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Museum Shop.
As a fine artist, nature is always her main source of inspiration. Her work is poetic and abstract rather than a literal depiction of her subject matter, whether exploring the beauty of the Virginia landscape or tackling climate change. In 2006, Skafte turned her artistic focus to illustrate planetary issues such as pollution, energy extraction, and the collapse of the ecosystem. Her award winning work depicting climate has been published in online journals and has been widely exhibited. Her current work is returning to abstraction derived from nature, and is exploring new approaches to botanical illustration and pattern design.
She has had solo exhibitions throughout Virginia, and group exhibitions along the east coast, New York and California. She taught art and design at universities and community colleges and now teaches drawing and painting privately at her downtown Charlottesville studio at McGuffey Art Center.
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