Work
In 2005 Jane McCracken started making drawings in Biro, a technique that transpired from creating small pieces of art on Post-it notes whilst working in an office in London. The technique of drawing with Biro is extremely difficult and requires much concentration as Biro leaves no room for error as it cannot be erased and blots easily. Each drawing is begun in Biro without the use of pencil guidelines.
Jane’s current series of work “Tales from the East”, begun in 2009, represents lives, ways of life and innocence lost during conflict or disaster (mainly WWII and Russia) not only to people but animals, places and the environment. The drawings are memorials to real lives lived, challenging the general aftermath of war and disaster where lives are eventually thought of as statistics. This series has further developed Jane’s work by her use of colour biro, amplifying the complexity of each piece.
"Tales from the East" draws from Jane’s passion for the genre of childhood memories and memoirs, fairy tales, Russia and Eastern Europe, forests and wolves and her continuing interest in WWII. The drawings form either strong images of objects or memories floating on stark white paper or fictitious TV screen images stirred by her photographic stills of films and documentaries then drawn in layers of colour biro as if the stills are projected on top of one another. ‘TV Screen’ drawings ultimately result in abstracted, colourfully patterned pieces with an ethereal quality.
Her aim is to make drawings of beauty that on closer inspection provoke consideration and remembrance of loss and the emotional and physical scars left behind by war and disaster. Her ‘fairytale-esque’ drawings transport the viewer to far-away places and exigent times just as semiotic tales of old have transported innumerable generations.