As she sits at her jack loom, watching the colorful geometric patterns of ‘rep weave’ emerge from beneath her fingers, or as she leans back in a rocking chair while wrapping yarns around gimp to produce coil basketry elements, Jan Coleman never feels alone. She feels, instead, “as if there is a long line of weavers stretching behind me to the horizon and beyond, until, like a tail, the line traces a route to every locale on the globe. This line of weavers exists across Time, emerging from the most distant Past and, moving through me, continues on.”
Jan works in ancient techniques of rep weave, twining, knotting and coiling. Her work has a narrative, artifact-like quality referencing a sense of place, culture, materiality, utility and lineage. It is enhanced by exhibit work that Jan has done for cultures such as Catlow and Fort Rock, Shoshone and Paiute in the Great Basin, Wintu, Nez Perce, Washo, Columbia Plateau and others; by years spent visiting Las Vegas Valley to conceive the 160-acre Las Vegas Springs Preserve (Origens); and by fifteen years working with the 1600-piece Wallace M. and Ruth Ruff Collection of Papua New Guinea Art and Architecture.
Jan began weaving in Max Nixon’s lab at the University of Oregon. She went on to take basketry from Yurok elder Geneva Matz, and tapestry at Mill College. Jan was considered an emerging Oregon artist in the 1970s and 1980s with a solo show followed by a joint show with Celeste LeBlanc at the Murray Warner Museum of Art (now the Jordan Schnitzer), and several appearances in shows at the Portland Art Museum. Her work has been featured in Artweek, Handweaver and Craftsman, and Omni magazines, and in the Portland Oregonian. Jan has been co-recipient of several regional and national grants and has been interviewed on Oregon radio and television.
For forty-five years, Jan has been weaving on her 4-harness Herald floor loom. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
“Self Portrait”, 2000, coil construction and assemblage: 20”x36”x7” bone, wool, paper, cotton and found objects. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
DETAIL “Self Portrait” wool and paper, coil construction and assemblage.
Great Basin Series “Life in Las Vegas Valley”, 2012, coil work and loom-woven rep weave: 17”x40”x5” maple, wool, ink, bauxite, excelsior and paper. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
DETAIL Great Basin Series “Life in Las Vegas Valley”: wool, paper and bauxite in off-loom construction.
DETAIL Great Basin Series “Life in Las Vegas Valley”: wool and excelsior in loom-woven rep weave.
Great Basin Series “Vessel”, 2008, hand-loom and off-loom, twining and coil: 17”x17”x5” wool, bauxite, excelsior, paper and found objects. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
DETAIL Great Basin Series “Vessel”: hand-loom twining with off-loom coil, wool, bauxite, excelsior and paper.
Papua New Guinea Series “Gable Mask”, 2005, loom-woven rep weave and coil construction: 18”x18”x3” wool, ramie, excelsior, paper, acetate and found objects. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
DETAIL Papua New Guinea Series “Gable Mask”: rep weave and coil, wool, ramie, excelsior and paper. Photo by Richard Wilhelm
Commission for Kathryn Thompson, 1976, Interior Architect: hand-twining and loom-woven rep weave, 24”x36” flax, linen, silk and wool. Courtesy of the Artist
Excerpt from “Axolotl”, 1976-79, production: hand-twining, coil work, loom-woven rep weave, assorted sizes, wool, silk, paper, beads and found objects. Courtesy of the Artist
“Mama Duck”, 1979, reviewed in Artweek: coil work in sea grass, 22”x16”x12” raffia, feathers and found objects. Courtesy of the Artist
“Adrian’s Hat”, 1977, coil work 24”x24x30” wool, cotton and paper. Courtesy of the Artist
Library Table “Woman Facing Middle Age”, 1987, mixed media: 38”x18”x18”, plaster gauze, poplar, paint, paper, raffia, silk and cotton. Courtesy of the Artist
