Hi, Iβm Janie
What is the temperature of an image?
Through painting, animation, and digital space, I explore how images hold warmth, memory, and the fragile moments that disappear too quickly in our lives.
Jane Liu is an artist working across painting, 2D hand-drawn animation, and 3D animation. Her work explores how images can feel alive through light, rhythm, and material, shaped in part by her experience of moving from Taiwan to Chicago. Interested in distance and the feeling of trying to hold onto a moment before it slips away, she works across multimedia and creates 3D animations using Maya. Her work was selected for the Art Besh exhibition in 2024. Liu is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Artist Statement
I used to think digital work was cold and impersonal.
No matter how expansive the interior space appears on screen, it remains flat. I cannot touch it, smell it, or feel any resistance. For a long time, I trusted paper more. Paper absorbs water, brushstrokes leave traces, and mistakes remain clearly visible. These marks hold profound meaning for me, they prove that something once existed. From the moment captured by the lens to the canvas, much of my work adopts photorealism. When I pick up brushes, I distill the feelings, the profound touch of that moment, and all that remains unspeakable, condensed onto the canvas.
I've always loved challenging my own limits, refusing to stand still. Moving from static painting into the world of moving images, I discovered that hand-drawn animation could convey texture too. Watercolor bleeds into every frame, the edges of the paper, the handmade irregularities, these are all expressions of warmth, their own inherent temperature.
Nowadays, 3D technology has profoundly transformed my understanding of "temperature." A screen I once perceived as lifeless now creates moments of infinite possibility. It feels like stepping into a boundless realm where time stands still, a space for pure exploration. Here, lighting carries a sense of warmth, and what the production pipeline generates can be both serendipitous and beautiful. In the world of animation, I no longer wait for the perfect moment, I craft it myself.
Regardless of the medium, I focus on one thing: whether an image feels alive. Does it breathe? Does it hold tension? Even when composed of pixels, can it convey warmth? I no longer distinguish between the digital and physical worlds, I evaluate both through touchable warmth.