Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight

Jan Owen

Jan Owen is a calligrapher and book artist from Belfast, Maine who incorporates traditional, sometimes ancient, techniques and transforms them into contemporary renditions of popular text. Owen’s love of medieval manuscripts, Asian calligraphy, music and poetry is evident. Her work has an architectural feel and incorporates a tapestry of shapes, colors and textures. Often larger in scale than one would expect, many of her pieces are designed to be hung on a wall. Using handmade paste papers, textured surfaces and gilt, a depth of layers is created, each rich and significant enough to stand alone, but in total harmony.

Owen, also a former Bangor Symphony string bass musician, has taught at Haystack School of Crafts in Maine, Sitka Center in Oregon, and at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. Her work can be found in the special collections of the Library of Congress, National Museum of Women in the Arts and Harvard, Yale and Wellesley. She exhibits her work internationally and we are delighted to represent her at 23 Sandy Gallery. Owen’s work is luminous, symphonic, and eloquent. We invite you to come by and take a look. 23 Sandy Gallery is open Thurs.-Sat., noon-6:00 p.m. or by appointment.

Photo: Rim of Darkness ©Jan Owen