I am a mixed media artist working in paper and cloth.
I hope to inspire you by sharing my own creativity with you, via classes, workshops, and my blog.
I’ve been teaching since 2006 and online since 2011.
I guide students to discover that they can indeed draw, and then paint with watercolor! And with that skill comes the invaluable gift of seeing the world as an artist does, noticing detail and color and pattern and joy in life.
I believe I am living the life I was meant to live, that of an artist, art teacher, and partner of my beloved husband.
I support seekers along the creative path through the healing power of artistic expression, the restorative nature of play, and the freeing effects of laughter.
I travel a lot, which I love! I teach a lot, which I love! I also make a lot of art ~ and you can guess that I love doing that too!
When I’m not engaged in art-making, I spend time with my husband (we love free outdoor concerts!) and practicing yoga a couple of times a week (I’ve been doing yoga for 15 years now.) I laugh at my kitties, Buddy and BeBop (both are now social media semi-stars, thanks to me.)
Interesting trivia about me:
I love to laugh and am a continual kidder.
I was a contestant on the game show, “Hollywood Squares,” and I won a car.
I did tandem skydiving (jumped from a plane at 12,000 feet.)
I was an international flight attendant when they still wore mini skirts.
Chocolate chip cookies are one of my favorite foods.
My Life Story:
When I was a child, I would visit my father once a month, at his apartment in San Francisco, (my parents were divorced) and not only would he take me to museums, plays, and craft fairs (and to Haight Asbury!) he encouraged my creativity by making things. In his kitchen, he had a card table set up, laden with treasures like glitter and pipe cleaners and crepe paper. We would work there together, during my visits. At each holiday, as I recall, he made me giant Easter eggs full of candy, or two-foot-high Christmas trees of crepe paper, that I would take home on the train (usually, the creations needed their own seat!)
My mother, a working single mom of two, condoned my creativity by the simple unspoken rule, that if I was doing something creative (perhaps rearranging my dollhouse, drawing, or building a flag pole from broom handles in the backyard) she would not interrupt me to do chores. I was 16 when my mother brought home a stitchery kit (as a gift for a cousin.) I commandeered it and began my love of hand stitching. For many many years, I worked kits of crewel work, needlepoint, and counted cross stitch. When I went back to school, in my late twenties, I took graphic design classes. I knew I loved working with my hands but didn’t think I could ‘draw.’ I went on to work in technical illustration, graphic design, and marketing for about 15 years.
It wasn’t until my husband’s brain aneurysm, in 1992, that I discovered I could draw and was an artist. My husband, Don, was 46 and had a brain injury. He had to learn to walk, talk, read and write all over again. I was his 24 hour caregiver. I was losing the “Jane” in me while grieving my husband’s cognitive losses and the future plans we’d made. I signed up for a drawing class, every Tuesday morning. I realized I could draw! The teacher moved away, and the class became a watercolor class. I didn’t want to change to watercolor, but it was my only free time during the week, so I became a watercolor artist. Over the years I added collage and mixed media, and textiles to my artist repertoire.
My husband’s brain injury forced us to recreate our lives. He is my biggest cheerleader and supporter now, while I work full time as an artist and teacher. I work hard now, at what I love. 
Don and I in Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 2018
Authored Articles:
Just Jane ebook: a compilation of 14 of my articles from Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines. 2015
Quilting Arts magazine: June/July 2007, October/November 2008, October/November 2009, June/July 2010, Feb/March 2011, April/May 2011, Feb/March 2012, June/July 2013, Feb/March 2015, December/January 2019
Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine: January/February 2007, March/April 2007, May/June 2007, March/April 2008, May/June 2008, July/August 2008, March/April 2009, March/April 2010, Nov/Dec 2010, March/April 2012 , January/February 2013, January/February 2017
Art Lessons, Volume 2: Textured Backgrounds, Transparent Foreground 2013
Pages magazine: Winter 2011, Winter 2012 Studios Magazine: Spring 2012 Quilting Arts Gifts magazine: 2008-2009 In Stitches: (eMagazine) July 2010
Television/DVD
Wet Felting Essentials for Fiber Artists starring Jane LaFazio
Layered and Fused Applique Quilts: Recycled Circles starring Jane LaFazio
From Art Journaling to Art, DVD or download starring Jane LaFazio
The Small Art Quilt Instructional Art Quilt DVD starring Jane LaFazio
Quilting Arts TV, Season 16, 2015
Quilting Arts TV, Season 10, 2013
Quilting Arts TV Season 8, 2011
Quilting Arts TV, Season 3, 2008
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Asian Studies and A.A. Graphic Design
Art Teaching Experience:
The Blue Walk (Greece, Danube River Cruise, France, Italy, England) Madeline School of the Arts (Wisconsin, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Tucson, Arizona) CRAFT NAPA (Napa, CA) Art is You (California, Minnesota, Connecticut ) LavenderSage Art Retreats (Taos, New Mexico) Sketchbook Skool (online) Tesoro del Corazon mixed media art retreats (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico) Adventures in Italy (Orvieto, Italy) Art and Soul Art Retreats (Portland, OR), Art Unraveled (Phoenix, Arizona) Athenaeum School of Art (San Diego) CREATE (Chicago, New Jersey, California) Idyllwild Summer Arts Program (Idyllwild, CA) International Quilt Festival, Long Beach and Houston, TX Mingei Museum of Art (San Diego) Oceanside Museum of Art (Oceanside, CA) Random Arts (North Carolina) San Diego Book Arts San Diego Museum of Art
Contributor Books:
Stitch Stories: Personal Places, Spaces and Traces in Textile Art by Cas Holmes (2015); An Illustrated Life, Danny Gregory (2008); Storytelling with Collage: Techniques for Layering, Color and Texture by Roxanne Evans Stout (2016); Material Visions: A Gallery of Miniature Art Quilts (2004); Fabric Art Gallery (2005); Beginner’s Guide to Art Quilts (2006); Sew Somerset (2008); Mixed-Media Self-Portraits: Inspiration & Techniques, Cate Coulacos Prato(2013) ; Art Quilts at Play, Jane Dávila and Elin Waterston (2008); Surface Design Essentials, Jane Dávila (2010); Personal Geographies, Jill K. Berry 2011; The Cloth Paper Scissors Book, Barbara Delaney (2011); The Sketchbook Challenge, Sue Bleiweiss (2012); Creating Art at the Speed of Life Pam Carriker (2013); Stencil Girl, Mary Beth Shaw (2013)
Online Interviews:
Interview with Ali Manning of Vintage Page Design 2021
Interview with Nathalie Kalbach 2020
Podcast on Craft Sanity January 2017
Artistically Speaking Talk Radio October 2011
Interview by Lesley Riley for BlogTalk Radio (September 2011)
Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions:
Comfort in a Glass House at Art on 30th, San Diego 2016; Palomar College Boehm Gallery (4 person show: 2006); California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum (invitational); Expressive Arts Institute of San Diego (solo); ArtWalk 2005 featured artist and ArtWalk Refrigerator artist; Dos Amigas: Icons, Milagros, and Tributes (5 years running–2 person show); Scripps Memorial Hospital (solo); South Chula Vista Library (solo) Visions Art Museum,2015
Selected Juried Exhibitions
Numerous juried art exhibitions since 1994, including acceptance into:
- 2014 Southern California Baja Norte Regional Exhibition (Havana)
- International Quilt Festivals (Long Beach, CA; Houston, Texas)
- 2013 Exquisite Moment (Havana)
- 2012 Rituals (Nature Journal)
- 2011 The Space Between (Industrial Aged)
- 2010 Beneath the Surface (Above the Bog)
- 2009 Edges (Zen Eucalyptus)
- 2011 Interpretations, Visions Art Museum
- 2010 Quilt Visions: No Boundaries (Zen Eucalyptus)
- 2008 Athenaeum Annual Exhibition (Ralphs Letters) San Diego Art Institute Annual International Award Exhibition three times; Oceanside Museum of Art Regional 4 exhibition; El Cajon International Friendship Festival Fine Arts Exhibits;
- 2000 San Diego Museum of Art All California Juried Exhibition and many monthly exhibitions in San Diego Art Institute; Escondido Municipal Gallery and San Diego Watercolor Society
