Celebrating Townsville Exhibition - The Artists

(Elizabeth) Jane Hawkins
b.1958, Ayr.

DipA QldTAFE, GDipTeach KGCAE, MCA JCU

Jane is a Townsville-based sculptor. Having attained teaching qualifications in 1979 after studying sculpture under Len Shillam, Jane taught drawing and sculpture at TAFE and later lectured in visual arts at JCU. Jane’s personal practice in her early years was largely been informed by her interest in the human form and psyche. This morphed later into a mix of found objects and created forms reminiscent of childhood toys, nursery rhymes and memories, not entirely devoid of the figurative. Her more recent works focus on her observation of and interaction with her environment, using collected materials, drawings and photographs from various sites visited during an extended journey south for the summer. Jane has added  layers of meaning to the image using Perspex and stitching with waxed thread - creating a visual memory of place.

Across her career she has also completed a number of major public sculpture commissions, including Townsville’s statue of Robert Towns, the Brandon War Memorial (featuring a full size bronze figure making off with a machine gun captured at Villers-Bretonneux), the Collinsville Mine Memorial (featuring a life size bronze coal miner in front of a bas relief bronze pit pony, with plaques commemorating those killed in mine disasters), and the Cairns ANZAC Memorial (comprising 4 black granite columns, each featuring a bronze hat and bag, a sandblasted image, and a bronze plaque dedicated to the army, navy, airforce and women who served in various battles throughout our history - each major battle depicted in a series of plaques in embedded in the path along ANZAC Way).She also finalised the design of JCU’s ceremonial mace.