Jan Castle Walker
Painting lets Jan arrange small pieces of her world, placing them in a context of present and past cultures. She has had the good fortune to travel the world, visit great museums and enjoy an excellent education in the arts. Bringing together her museum and travel experiences seems like a natural marriage providing a well spring of inspiration. Given this interest, objects found in her paintings come from her travels or from the bounty of her studio collection, and their backgrounds are “quoted” from masterworks experienced from museums, books, travel sketches, etc. By juxtaposition, a new meaning emerges, and the order of the painting becomes a conversation. She thinks living life is dealing with random events coming up against situations found in our past histories. Whether those histories are personal or from the march of time, we 
bob along like a cork, take it all in and attempt to make meaning of what we perceive. Being drawn to a particular artist or genre raises such interesting questions about ones perceptions. When she can find a rich relationship between her subjects and their en situ(ations), She hopes to share the intrigue through her paintings. She first studied art with Martin Scholz in high school and then went on to study painting and drawing at USC, California College of Arts and Crafts (California College of the Arts, today) and University of California at Davis. The most impressive teacher/artists who influenced her direction were Connor Everts of USC, Ralph Borge at CCAC, and David Hollowell at UCD. Their lessons exempelified the love of formal art processes and rich subject matter that she always found inspiring. Her fascination with still-life has been greatly enhanced by her association with Abbey Ryan, who has given her generous guidance and counsel.
