JANE DESCHNER
Gallery
from the maxim series (Serling, cows & elephants) unique photographs, cotton thread
“A family’s photograph album is generally about the extended family and often is all that remains of it.” Susan Sontag
For the past decade, Montana artist Jane Deschner has collected and altered Twentieth Century found photography. Deschner reclaims orphan photographs that have outlived their original purpose and, often, the people and places depicted. In Deschner’s artwork, anonymous family snapshots, studio portraits, movie stills, and news photographs are stitched together and embroidered by hand in Victorian-sampler fashion with text borrowed from celebrities, politicians, and writers.
Through the surprising meeting of embroidery and photography, text and image, the well-known word and the anonymous, long-gone person, Jane Deschner creates a new-shared purpose. Characterized by the interconnectedness of human nature, Deschner’s sewn and bound images form a new larger universal family where the importance and promise of each everyday life is known, treasured and understood.
Deschner received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT and her BFA from Montana State University, Billings, MT. She has exhibited widely in the United States and her work is in numerous public and private collections including: Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Helena, MT; Alberta Bair Theater, Billings, MT; Nicolaysen Art Museum, Casper, WY; Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation, Nebraska City, NE; Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis, MN & Helena, MT; Montana State University, Billings Foundation; University of Montana, Missoula, MT; Ucross Foundation, Clearmont, WY; Yellowstone Exhibition, Billings MT; and Yellowstone Public Radio, Billings MT.