Historic prints, etchings and expressions at Redlands Gallery

Artist Jan Harvey has always been fascinated with history, and so this coming month people in Redlands can enjoy her historic photographs of old Redlands or how Redlands used to be in the time period 1968 to 1974. Her featured art show runs from August 8 through September 4 at Redlands Art Association with an open house event on Saturday, August 15 from 1 to 4 p.m.

“What I’m trying to do with this show, [is] it’s a city historical thing,” she said. “I’m nostalgic about the old buildings, because they were beautiful old buildings.”

“I’m a historian and I’ve lived in Redlands since I was a teenager,” she said, though she was born in Riverside. “I hated seeing the city change so much.” Motifs of old Redlands include the Wilson Texaco gas station, the Packard building, the La Posada Hotel and more.

As a young woman, “I was perfectly happy walking on the roofs and wander around and photograph everything,” Harvey said. Since then, she has turned the old photographs into etchings. “I realized I had been taken those pictures for a long period of time,” she said.

Back in 1968, Harvey studied photography at Valley College. She worked as a photographer and journalist on the college newspaper and she also took classes at the photography department at Crafton Hills College before it closed, including etching and printmaking.

Her fascination with photography also began because she wanted to document the childhoods of her two children. “There were very few pictures of me and my sister,” she said of being born during WWII. The first photo of her sister was from when she was 18 months old.

Another fascination of Harvey’s is genealogy. Her grandmother and mother were poets, so leading a creative life seemed a given. So too, have her kids continued the lineage, her son by building the exhibits for the Museum of Redlands and her daughter as a high school art teacher. For the show she has incorporated her mother’s poetry into some of her artwork.

Then there is the family home which her husband built in 1988, a geodesic dome in Yucaipa, close to wildlife and the mountains. They have visits from not only deer but also a mountain lion and a bear mom with her cubs.

She credits her first photography teacher for teaching her proper skills. “He was a wonderful teacher who didn’t let us get away with anything, like working in the dark room, everything had to be pristine, you didn’t cut corners,” she said.

Meeting a fellow art student spurred her on to etching and printmaking. She studied with world-renowned printmaker Dan Welden in the traditional harsh chemical platemaking. And from there, she connected with a Japanese artist to work on a type of water-plate etchings, moving away from the chemicals and acids.

Part of her featured show is to teach visitors not only about history but also about the art process. “I want people to be able to learn something,” she said. These lessons connect to the times Harvey used to teach printmaking in her home studio. Fellow artists Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja and Sue Mitchell of the 52 Project at the Riverside Art Museum have taken Harvey’s workshops. She has let Janet and Fred Edwards come use her equipment in her studio.

She was a volunteer at the Riverside Art Museum for over a decade. She helped host the Monothon inspired by Santa Fe, which was a daily printmaking session for high school and college art students. There are plans to revive it in the near future.

For years, Harvey was a Girl Scout leader, she photographed her husband’s rock-climbing group and was a driving force in the Peace Group in Redlands. During the Iraq war, she and her husband were at the Peace Corner every Friday for 12 years.

“One thing I like to focus on is people. I find people’s faces fascinating,” she said. She’s photographed people at protests in Los Angeles, but also travels and everyday life. “None of my photos are ever posed,” she said. “My training has helped me to see and to react quickly enough to catch the expression I want.” She added, “It’s about catching them while they are experiencing something that is meaningful to them.”

Positive comments from artist friends feel like the biggest accomplishment to Harvey. “Artist friends of mine that I admire and that means a lot to me,” she said. She constantly learns about new methods and ways to expand her art.

“It’s something that I need,” she said of art making. “I just can’t not do it.”

Harvey’s artwork has been displayed in individual and group juried shows throughout Southern California. Exhibits include Riverside Art Museum, Cal Poly Pomona, La Quinta Art Festival, Chaffey Community Museum of Art, Art for Heaven’s Sake, galleries in Riverside, Redlands and more. Her work is part of collections in the U.S., Switzerland and Japan and will be featured at the Museum of Redlands.

About the Redlands Art Association
Address: 215 E. State St., Redlands, CA 92373.
RAA website: redlands-art.org
RAA social media: facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram.
Opening hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Sundays.