We recently connected with Jane Gabrielle and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I have learned that everything is connected, right? So, I will start with the first art residency I served for the City of Roanoke with the Gun Violence Prevention Commission. I had asked for this assignment because I lost a childhood friend to gun violence. I tried to turn the crime maps upside down and glean new information. My study found that the three most violent watersheds (2022: 29 vs. 7 incidents of gun violence in the entire rest of the city) had the least tree canopy at 9, 14 and 15% percent. I further found that CDC disease maps reiterated those findings. Low tree canopy equals poor health outcomes psychologically, and physically manifesting in the highest rates of obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, longevity and mental illness. Urban Heat Island effect? Food desert? Education? Same map.
I carried that discovery into my next endeavors as part of the leadership team for Heat2Hope.org, a National Science Foundation funded research grant administered by Dr. Theo Lim at Virginia Tech. The project aimed to create social and digital infrastructures for community resilience to extreme heat through deploying youth technology, arts, and urban planning programs in partnership with city government and existing community development and faith organizations specifically in Northwest Roanoke, the area with poor tree canopy.
My job was leading art engagement. The arts engagements in Heat2Hope were largely about elevating asset-based love of place through the arts. The much bandied about word “resiliency” always considers “trauma” which is the cause of the need for resiliency. And rightly so. But resiliency needs roots, right? Excavating those roots uncovers JOY OF PLACE. My work exploded with this revelation. Armed with that knowledge, I was able to help facilitate and collaborate with neighbors and children and create murals, a giant water goddess “Yemaya”, a parade-ready Bob Marley and much more. NW participation in the annual Daisy Art Parade went from 2 krewes to EIGHT!
Jane, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I always knew I wanted to be an artist or musician when I grew up. I attended Virginia Commonwealth University for 2.5 years in Commercial Art & Design. That was the emphasis back then, where you could “make money”. Then AIDS hit and I started losing professors to the disease. I felt a need to make a social commentary about that and the normalization, acceptance of out LGBTQ+ brethern. So, I started my band “Radar Rose”. I toured for the next 20 years, 11 states, 250 dates a year. (https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1995/rt9512/951217/12150106.htm). We released four albums, the last of which, “Click”, is on iTunes.
Next, I launched my business “One World Face & BodyArt” (www.VirginiaFacePainter.com). I ended up touring as a business owner with a carnival for 8 years. I continued to make artwork out on the road. I learned a great deal too about the folks that run the shows, the “carnies”. I learned how businesses like amusement companies (this includes places like Walmart and other low wage employers) use entitlements to maintain status quo. They hire people, and say, “we’ll pay you $300 a week, but with food stamps, that’s like $400.” Then they are charged $40/week to stay in a bunk house. The hours are horrendous, there is no health insurance. Some churches will set up a dental clinic at carnivals and that is where they go. It was eye-opening.
Covid ended this era for me. After painting every room in my house, I wondered what was next. Then came the summer of George Floyd. I thought “this shit’s gotta end NOW!” Facebook analyzed the nature of my reading, my shares, my activism and delivered the greatest gift. An ad from a small college in Vermont. It read, “Get you degree in Socially-Engaged Art”. I was like, wait! Is that a thing!!? For the next 18 months I gorged myself on liberal arts training and graduated with a BFA in the concentration. My thesis was environmental approach to socially-engaged art. This is best summed up in my bio: “Gabrielle’s work inspects the intersectionality of inward-focused creative practice, informed by ancestry and spirituality, and outer-focused visionary activism in stewardship of the Earth that engages socially with public art that encourages sustainability in the environment and personal commitment to spiritual and cultural transformation. She strives to create work that encourages care of the Earth and all of its inhabitants in a socially, economically and environmentally just “beloved community” as envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “
I hit the ground running and have not stopped working since!
Some links that sum this up:
https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=empathy%20project,%20jane%20gabrielle&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:67c65c4a,vid:sOZvb2DE7NY,st:0
https://www.unitythroughcreativity.org/team/jane-gabrielle-mccadden
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
You know, as I honed in on my Senior study at Goddard College, I went through some old family papers. In it, I found an essay I wrote in 5th grade. My mother must have saved it and sent it to my grandmother. In it, I imagined that my family and I were excited on another planet because Earth had become too polluted to sustain life. This was in 1974. I realized my mission then, throughout my music career, throughout my artistic endeavors, was to make people care about this planet! I’ve made giant sculptures out of plastics for Mill Mountain Zoo and Dr. Pepper Music Park. I’ve used campaign signs for the “HeartApples for Homeless Students” campaign. I try to reduce, reuse, recycle, all to draw attention to Earthcare.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding piece of being an artist is bringing people together in collaboration.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://VirginiaFacePainter.com
- Instagram: @Radaroseraygun
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090608691178&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: /janegabrielle
- Twitter: @janegabrielle23
- Youtube: @janegabrielle
Image Credits
Artwork & Photo by Jane Gabrielle