Transforming ordinary black watercolor paper into powerful spirit animals is the unique gift Jane Hoefler offers in her art. From her Bitterroot Valley studio Awakenings, Jane creates colored pencil drawings of Totem Animals, reflecting her strong connection to Native American culture and spirit.
"Totem Animal is a Native American term. It is an animal that you look at in life for your lessons. An animal that comes up in your life," says Jane.
From Jane’s spirit guides or creative angels, come the images for each Totem Animal she draws. She combines the images with a study of the detail of each animal to create her drawings, which each entail at least sixty hours of work. All originals are then converted to photographic prints so others may share in the energy of these sacred animals. She has currently completed twelve Totem Animals and has two works in progress.
Jane does her own photography of animals and background whenever possible, then creates a storyboard, or visual study, that she refers to for detail as she works. In the work ‘Coyote’, for example, Jane photographed Sweathouse Hill to use in her storyboard because that is where she heard coyotes howling. For ‘Grizzly," Jane visited Portland Zoo and took pictures of the bears in a standing posture. She always strives to capture the spark in the animal’s eye.
"I want the person to experience the energy of this animal, not just look at a picture of a bear or coyote, because that’s what Totem Animals are all about, and that’s what I’m about," she says.
Because the work is so intense, Jane works no longer than two hours at a time. Although not quite as delicate as pastels, colored pencils allow no margin of error because they smudge easily and cannot be erased or colored over. Jane also ‘grids off’ her photographs and drawing paper to ensure every detail is up to scale.
Each print
includes a story describing the symbolic power
of the Totem Animal and details about the
original drawing. Jane’s current brochures
contain a complete list of her work.
