USC UPSTATE

Spartanburg, S.C. – Jane Allen Nodine, a professor of art at the University of South Carolina Upstate, recently had 10 of her encaustic paintings chosen for inclusion in the Ashley River Tower Contemporary Carolina Collection, the largest collection of contemporary art in the state. The 641,000-square-foot, $400 million tower is the new Medical University of South Carolina medical facility, which specializes in cardiovascular and digestive diseases. The facility will open on February 4.

"I'm very pleased to be included in the MUSC collection. Particularly since I grew up in South Carolina and I work here, it's nice to be recognized and included," Nodine said. "This collection is made public, so people will actually see the pieces. I do have pieces in other collections, and I often wonder how many different people have a chance to see those. I think often it's the same people who pass by every day who are exposed to them."

Slated to be the largest collection of contemporary art in South Carolina, the Collection will showcase the work of 54 artists living in South Carolina. Nearly 300 artists submitted work for consideration and of the 54 selected, Nodine is the only artist from Spartanburg.

Ten of Nodine’s encaustic paintings were selected by the acquisitions team that was directed by Curator Mark Sloan, director of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston. Of Nodine's works selected by the MUSC acquisition team, several are abstract pieces she called "wishbones." Nodine theorized that those pieces were selected because of their relationship to the human body and for the "wish" factor that patients can relate to.

Her encaustic works are inspired by images from nature and are made from heated, bleached beeswax, which keeps the golden amber color of the beeswax. Nodine uses a heat gun to manipulate the beeswax after it has hardened and uses brushes, scrapers or other metals to embed pigment into the 3-D pieces. Nodine was first drawn to the encaustic process, which dates back to Greek and Roman times when encaustic portraits were affixed to mummies or caskets, after attending a conference in late 2006.  She was so taken with the process that she was able to create about 30 pieces within just a few months.

At the facility, Nodine's encaustic paintings will join a variety of other art mediums including quilts, sweetgrass baskets, sculptures, paintings, Catawba pottery and a bottle-cap portrait of Philip Simmons, a celebrated Charleston artist in ironwork. The architects and MUSC physicians wanted to include the works of South Carolina artists throughout the tower as a means of art therapy and to create a sense of place and a respite for patients and caregivers. Artist biographies and descriptions of the pieces will accompany the works.

“Art is an important element in setting the tone for a healing environment, and it has been shown to positively influence a number of clinical measures,” said MUSC President Ray Greenberg. “We chose to focus on South Carolina artists to ground the hospital in its native state and to provide a comforting and familiar environment for the patients and families that we serve.”

Nodine’s work has taken many forms over the years including techniques in drawing, painting, design, jewelry-metalsmithing, installation and photography. Her most recent research involves computer manipulation of digital imagery and techniques for merging traditional photography and drawing with new forms of imaging and print technology. An example of this work was included in the South Carolina State Museum's TRIENNIAL 2004 exhibition in Columbia, and the 2005 Appalachian Corridors exhibition at the Avampato Museum in Charleston, West Virginia.

During the fall of 2006 Nodine began research in encaustics and integrated the process into her work. Since that time she has completed several groups of work for exhibition, and performed research of encaustic techniques with the R&F Paint manufacturing company in Kingston, NY. In October 2007 she presented a solo exhibition of encaustic works at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, and she is currently scheduled for a group exhibition at the First Center for the Arts in Nashville, Tennessee during 2008.

Nodine has artwork exhibited in the U.S. and Europe, including the Equitable Life collection in New York, the South Carolina State Collection in Columbia and numerous private collections in the U.S. and Italy. For more information, contact Jane Allen Nodine at (864) 503-5838 or jnodine@uscupstate.edu.