{"id":225421,"date":"2025-10-15T02:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/225421\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T02:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T02:01:15","slug":"jane-maxwells-in-your-face-art-on-feminine-ideals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/225421\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Maxwell’s ‘In Your Face’: Art on Feminine Ideals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy work has always been focused on the pressure for the feminine ideal, and all the bombarding messages,\u201d said the artist. \u201cIt has plagued me in terms of how to show up in the world and how we show ourselves externally versus the messier internal world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Female figures boldly push into the viewer\u2019s space with hand or foot in her show \u201cIn Your Face\u201d at Lanoue Gallery<\/a> through Nov. 1. <\/p>\n

\"AA Jane Maxwell piece, \u201cIn Your Face.\u201d Jane Maxwell Studio<\/p>\n

\u201cStop making me subliminally feel somehow unworthy because of who I am and how I\u2019m aging,\u201d said Maxwell, 61.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s never that easy. \u201cThe other side of me is like, \u2018Oh, well, I have an event coming up, or I\u2019m feeling particularly wrinkly,\u201d she said. \u201cThe next thing I know, I\u2019m getting an injection in my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition, said the artist, is \u201ca no-judgment zone.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BotoxBotox vials are among the materials Jane Maxwell used to create art in her show, “In Your Face.” Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Where to find her: www.instagram.com\/janemaxwellstudio\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally from: Wayland<\/p>\n

Lives in: Beacon Hill<\/p>\n

Making a living: When Maxwell first set out to sell her art in her 30s, she used tools she\u2019d developed as a marketing professional in her 20s. She asked herself: \u201cWhat\u2019s my competitive advantage? How can my collage be different than other collages? What\u2019s not really in the marketplace?\u201d She\u2019s had shows around the U.S., and her art earns her keep, she said.<\/p>\n

\"AA sculptural lamp, \u201cShiny Objects,\u201d Jane Maxell made using Botox vials.Jane Maxwell Studio<\/p>\n

Studio: The artist and two assistants work in a large studio filled with labeled barrels of colored paper and buckets of other finds, like Botox packaging provided by Maxwell\u2019s daughter, a nurse anesthetist.<\/p>\n

How she started: When her daughters were small, the artist saw them playing with paper dolls. \u201cI remember looking at my little girls and I\u2019m like, \u2018oh boy, are they in for it,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cClothes don\u2019t always fit. It\u2019s not a simple, one-dimensional situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI took those paper dolls and started deconstructing them and creating them out of other materials,\u201d she said. It was her first series.<\/p>\n

\"JaneJane Maxwell rips apart scavenged billboard paper, one of her favorite materials, in her studio. Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Why she loves collage: \u201cIt\u2019s the layering,\u201d she said. She finds that in a favorite material, too: Billboard papers, pasted one atop the next. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start peeling back, you\u2019ve just got all these gorgeous layers, and there\u2019s text and you never know what you\u2019re going to find.\u201d Maxwell said, tearing through some on a worktable. \u201cI\u2019m excavating. Which is so much of the theme. What\u2019s on top, what\u2019s underneath? What are we showing? What\u2019s hidden?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the materials in Jane Maxwell’s studio.Suzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

How she works: \u201cI just start gluing,\u201d Maxwell said. \u201cIt\u2019s very meditative and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then she finds the right feminine silhouette in a photo, erases everything but the outline to create a drawing, and blows it up on a large-scale printer. Once figures are on her background, she collages on their clothing.<\/p>\n

Advice for artists: \u201cEmbrace mistakes,\u201d Maxwell said. Spilled glue, a flooded studio \u2013 \u201csome of my most amazing discoveries\u201d have come that way, she said.<\/p>\n

\"AA mixed media piece filled with Botox fials in the studio of Jane Maxwell. A larger version is in her show “In Your Face” at Lanoue Gallery.
\nSuzanne Kreiter\/Globe Staff