Artist: Jane DeDecker
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About Jane DeDecker
Jane DeDecker was born in Marengo, Iowa, in 1961. She grew up with nine sisters and brothers on a family farm, and her artwork reflects a connection to nature, both the environment and human nature. As DeDecker works the clay, concepts emerge from memories and observations of life. Impressions of something felt, seen, or heard take three-dimensional form. A family rising with the dawn becomes a spiritual awakening. A woman worn thin by her burdens opens the possibility of a lightness of being. A man managing a wheelbarrow reminds us of the steadfast patience to balance life’s abundance.
DeDecker became a member of the National Sculpture Society in New York City in 1998 and a Fellow in 2007. She has placed over 175 life- and monumental-sized public sculptures in more than 30 states. Some of the highlights of DeDecker’s installations include Harriet Tubman at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas; Albert Gallatin at the National Park Service in Friendship Hill, Pennsylvania; Emily Dickinson at Converse College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Can Can at the Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina; In the Wings at the Robinson Performing Arts Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; Amelia Earhart at the Earhart Elementary School in Oakland, California; Sharing Discoveries at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota; and Who’s Watching Who at the Meijer Sculpture Garden in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Along with her own sculptural interpretations of the human form, DeDecker equally finds fascinating commissioned projects. She partners with art counsels, elected committees, and families to ensure that a piece meets the vision as well as the budget and scheduled timeline. She works alongside structural engineers, landscape architects, and community members so that the work is installed and maintained with integrity.
Over 35-plus years, Jane DeDecker has sought to capture moments that reveal truths about the human condition, that, when stripped down to their essence, are understood intrinsically. As a figurative sculptor, she communicates emotional experience through lyrical compositions that move the viewer. DeDecker’s sculptures stop life in mid-sentence—somewhere between inhaling and exhaling—and gives it form. She tells a story through the simple moments that imprint our lives and define us.