Society in Design: Works by Janey Fine

January 30th  – March 20, 2014

Janey Fine, Hands, 2012, digital print

Working on a digital canvas, Union College sophomore, Janey Fine, combines sanguine sentiments and imagery of the fifties with raw printing elements and social criticism of the new millennium. Design principles of Gestalt theory pique intellectual interest, while the inclusion of vintage portraiture paints a pleasing, yet provocative, picture. Some works seem to take a direct and critical look at recent, current events, while bold typography plays an important role in many of Fine’s works, communicating both visually and conceptually with the viewer.

Fine’s digital arts professor, Fernando Orellana, speaks highly of his student: “Janey Fine is a natural when it comes to the visual relationship between text and image. Interestingly, she didn’t know she possessed this talent until she enrolled in Intro to Digital Art her freshman year. During that term, it quickly became obvious that she was creating on a purely instinctual level, almost as if her consciousness was catching up with a talent that was suddenly running wild and driving the imagery on its own. Since that course, it has been a pleasure watching her discover this side of herself, along with helping her develop a more mature and sophisticated eye.”

In the words of the artist herself: “I have always been a ‘right-brained’ person, finding inspiration in unconventional aspects of the world around me. It’s eccentric shapes, colors, and sounds that get my artistic juices flowing and allow me to create art that means something to me. I am interested in the way visual culture affects American society, and in my lifetime I would like to play a part in its creation.”