I'm Jane Foster and have a multi - hyphen career. I'm an illustrator, textile designer, author, tutor and small business owner. My reasoning behind writing this article is two fold - to write my story down so I don't forget it and to hopefully be of some inspiration to others who might want to follow their creative dreams. I started my career with no funding, no experience whatsoever, no background in design, sales, marketing.... but with a lot of tenacity.I've been someone who has tried hard, failed lots and kept going, creating lots and lots every day, good and not so good work.It's not been without it's ups and downs but has definitely been worth it as I've been able to live a life full of intention at home with my family. As you'll see from photos of my work, the majority of my designs have been for and inspired by my daughter who has grown up alongside my career being my greatest critic and source of inspiration. For years I didn't ever think I would be a mum. She is without doubt my greatest achievement but second to her, my self made career is too.
I’m what you might call a late starter in this field as I didn't start my design career until I was in my late 30s! In fact, I started this career in a recession! (and was completely naive!) I also haven’t taken a conventional route to get here, which will hopefully be of some inspiration to you. It's also worth noting that a huge part of my career grew without the use of an iPhone or any social media (Facebook or Instagram). *Some of the photos I've used in this article were unedited and taken with a small digital camera I used 15 years ago.
Let me start by telling you a bit about my background! My parents were both teachers - mum was a maths teacher and my dad was a physics teacher. Dad was quite creative - he made a fibreglass canoe, a rectangular guitar and a hexagonal wooden summer house that he’d copied from a park in London. He was always doing things around the house, making things in the garage and taking us to car boot sales to see what we could find.
Both parents encouraged me to be creative and although I loved making things and doing art, it was music that I seemed to be better at as a child so I spent many years playing the violin and piano. I went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music every Saturday from the age of 14 - 17 and and played in several orchestras.
I stayed on in the 6th form at school and did music and art A level. My art teacher was such an inspiring woman and she introduced me to screen printing using paper cut stencils. My other favourite medium was to painting with black Indian ink - I would draw my favourite singers and bands in monochrome. She let me have my own printing table by the window in the art room that I could print on during my lunch breaks whilst listening to any music I wanted. She let me screen print T shirts and onto fabric to make into curtains and clothes. I absolutely loved art but didn’t for one second think it could have been something I could have taken further beyond school, or that I was even any good at it. I think I just about passed!
I moved to Manchester when I left home and spent 5 years studying the violin and piano at Music College before doing a PGCE teaching course in music, drama, dance and art. After 2 years of teaching abroad (with VSO in Cambodia) I moved to Brighton where I became a violin teacher and then a class room music teacher for around 14 years. I worked with all ages ranging from reception aged children up to A ‘level.
People can often quote a turning point in their life which gets them thinking in a different way - for me it was losing my dad to a sudden heart attack when I was 29. A few weeks before he died, he said to me that I could sell my art one day and that I’d be a mum. I was single and childless at the time so it was a tough time! I’m pretty sure then that a tiny seed had been sewn in my brain, that lay dormant for a few years, but nevertheless, was still there.
In my early thirtees, I became acutely aware that the rest of my life was mapped out for me but I was no longer enjoying my teaching job as much as I had in the beginning - I was spending all my free time lesson planning and seemed to be getting exhausted towards the end of each term, often spending the holidays recovering. I also noticed that whenever the school holidays started, all I wanted to do was make things, sew and do DIY. Losing dad taught me that it’s vital to enjoy life to the full and not postpone happiness for a future time that may or may not ever happen. My dad had planned to retire early and travel around the world and also renovate a derelict old house for fun. These things were never experienced so I made a decision that I wouldn’t postpone the fun times for retirement!
In 2002, my sister visited me with her two daughter’s and I decided to write a children’s book for them, just for fun. I wrote it in a similar style to the Miffy books by my hero Dick Bruna, who sadly passed away last Wenesday on the 16th February, my Birthday. Each background page was a bold colour and I painted the pictures using poster paints and stuck them on card so it was a board book. - You’ll see the relevance in this later!