BIO
Jane Armstrong (b. Cleveland, Ohio) is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Primarily trained as a painter at the Museum School in Boston, Armstrong’s imagery changed from abstract to figurative in 1993 while living in West Java, Indonesia. She then exchanged film for paint, choosing documentary subject matter in urban settings, and using twin lens reflex cameras as both a more intimate and less intrusive way to take a picture. Upon returning to New York, she studied documentary photography at The International Photography Center in New York City. While living in San Francisco, Armstrong printed large-scale black and white imagery at the Harvey Milk Recreational Center which houses the largest darkroom in the United States and the attending wildly diverse environment in which to exchange ideas and techniques. As a member of The Pixels Corps, Armstrong developed an interest in moving images and participated in the making of music videos, directing, filming, and editing. Since returning to New York in 2009, Armstrong has begun working in color to produce digital still images, and finds continued creative expression through examining and expanding on the world around us.

STATEMENT
Primarily a painter, some time ago I came in to a collection of Brownie cameras and began printing large-scale black and white imagery, turning the often unpredictable results plastic cameras produce to my favor. I’ve since been working in color to produce digital still images, and continue to bend a photographic image beyond it’s literal aspect, manipulating with a variety of digital effects in a manner that’s more painterly than I achieved with film.  Although my areas of interest have been varied, ranging from painting to photography, found-object collage, and mixed media images, my subject matter remains focused on the human drama. Throughout history, throughout human experience, we meet with the same fundamental situations arising from the same emotional conflicts and needs. As an artist, I hope to investigate and express these primal correlations that link us to the past, the future, and to each other.