Inspired by the civic spirit of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Jan Wade created a painting as political mandate to encourage reflection on contemporary enfranchisement issues and to get out the vote. The IOOF, is a fraternal society that met on location in the early 20th century.
I was born an artist. My beginning years were spent in a small community of black people who had come to Southern Ontario from the Southern U.S.A. My parents were married in 1951 and brought in and questioned by the Morality Squad of the Hamilton Police Dept. since mesegenation(the mixing of the races) was still against the law. I graduated from a comprehensive Arts High School and moved from Hamilton to Toronto were I graduated with honors from The Ontario College of Art and Design. I moved to Vancouver and became part of a small but intence live Arts and Music scene. From there I started researching Black Spiritual Practices through Slave Cultures and have lived and worked in Cuba, Haiti and the U.K. I was one of two Canadian artists invited to participate in the 1st International Arts Biennale in Johannesburg, South Africa after the official end of aparthied and met Nelson Mandela seven months after his electon. My work is an on going learning process and I have become interested in the enviroment and the use of recoverable materials and objects as building materials. This has become an important part of my process. For more info. www.janwade.com
