Ten Facts About Me
- My name is Janet Davis. Not Janice, Janis, nor Janette. It is the name that I was born with, and I quite like it. Thanks mom & dad! I really don't like it when people get my name wrong. I'm a big baby about it, actually, even when I'm terrible at remembering names of other people!
- I was born at Brookfield Hospital, which is about a 10 minute walk from my house & studio. Although I have lived elsewhere for schooling and such, I really have not strayed far from my ancestral home of Pinchard's Island, just a wee boat ride away.
- I don't have a favourite colour. I love them all.
- I can play a few chords on the guitar and ukulele, but I do not have the guts to try performing. I keep those skills for alone time!
- My highest level of education is from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in the form of a Bachelor of Fine Arts (interdisciplinary), but I feel that I learned far more in the Textile Studies program which now runs out of the Anna Templeton Centre in St. John's. Perhaps that was because I was a newbie to the world of art, but many of the skills I use on a day to day basis are ones that I learned there.
- I am very happily married to the best man. Duke Kelloway has been my biggest critic, guide, and supporter in my artistic career. He's my best friend, and I love our life together here in our hometown.
- I am a mother. I have a grown-up son. He's not an artist like me, but I think his ability to think creatively along with his interest in science and mechanics is a winning combination that will make great things happen in his life.
- I am a textile artist, painter, and printmaker. My first love was textiles, my second and main squeeze is printmaking, but painting is what I have in my head the most right now. I've been painting oodles of images of smudge herring, and I am almost ready to start my next series of painting projects.
- My ancestors came from Britain. William Henry Frederick Davis apparently came over from Portsea in the 1700s and settled on Pinchard's Island. There were a ton of people looking to change their way of life at a time when the class system held people down and being poor could mean starvation. I often think about what a challenge it had to be to live here without good heating and protection from the driving winds, but they were obviously a determined group of people who wanted better for their children. And look at what an amazing safe and beautiful place I live now because of their foresight!
- I own Norton's Cove Studio Inc. as 100% shareholder; It was incorporated in 2002. I am also a director of a related company: Norton's Cove Marine Inc. Both of my jobs are very related to making a living from the sea. One is inspired by the ocean, and the other is rooted in the ships that sail upon it.