About Jana
Jana Fayne Kolpen is an author, artist, and designer whose life opened and changed direction when, in 1994, she had a wonderful dream of a far away French farmhouse. Following the dream, she found herself blessed with a summer spent in southwest France, at the farmhouse in her dream. This adventure of discovery led to a successful book, The Secrets of Pistoulet: A Fable of Food, Magic, and Love, published in 1996 by Stewart, Tabori and Chang. She has since co-authored and illustrated Dancing with the Moon, A Story of Love at the Villa della Luna, 2004 and The Circle of Kindness, An Irish Journey of the Heart, 2006.
In 2002, the Pfaltzgraff Company licensed all of Jana's books and artwork for a series of dinnerware collections. She worked with Pfaltzgraff, designing and marketing the collections. Her dinnerware collections continue to be the most successful patterns Pfaltzgraff has produced.
Jana's two dogs, Poochini a lively PBGV and Gordon his sidekick toy poodle with a big personality, brought her to the dog community of Riverside Park in Manhattan where she was inspired to portray in her artwork the personalities of the dogs and cats they met. This series of animal art is called Poochini and Friends and part of the proceeds will be donated to an animal fund called Gotham Cares she is creating with her friend and Veterinarian, Bonnie Brown. Much of her other work was inspired by her travels in France as well as her unusual and spirited wedding in France. This series still in development is called My French Wedding.
More recently, Jana had a vision of sculpting Jongleuresse women. Jonglueresse is a French term for a type of wandering female entertainer in medieval Europe. In a synchronicity of form and sound, Jana was inspired to create a series of unusual women whose dresses form the shape of bells. Jana has found clay to be the richest and most versatile medium to form her Jonglueresse bells. Each Jongleuresse bell is one of a kind and has a sound unique to its form.
Jana continues to explore textures, colors, glazes and media in a search for the beauty of art and music.