I am an artist, creative activist, illustrator, designer, writer, tutor and facilitator. This is quite a mouthful, I know, but I enjoy challenges and new experiences - which is why I love to experiment and get involved in a variety of different disciplines and projects.
Art never stops reshaping itself, recreating the thoughts and ideas each of us have at any given time. I believe that one can only truly be free and happy when in harmony with nature, your true self, and others. I work in a wide and diverse amount of creative disciplines and techniques to express my ideas and views. Recognizing that stopping to grow and change is to die slowly, I constantly try to find new ways and things that inspire and motivate me.
“We are shaped by our experiences, the people around us and the things we decide to make our own. I believe deeply in the human spirit as being nurturing, creative, loving, free, peaceful and compassionate. With a love for art, the environment, people and new experiences I enjoy getting involved in different projects and I work in a wide variety of disciplines and media. I am also deeply interested in philosophical and critical thoughts about our interaction with the environment, society, ourselves and religion, which offers my creative work a range of different subjects or sources for reference and inspiration.”
Janet Botes was born and grew up in Vanderbijlpark, a riverside town to the South of Johannesburg. After studying Graphic Design at the Vaal University of Technology and attaining a B Tech qualification with Cum Laude, Janet worked and lived in Johannesburg, and then Pretoria, before settling in Cape Town.
Janet has always loved drawing and finds personal peace and freedom in the creation process, especially when experimenting and combining different mediums. The images she creates aims to give life to emotion, internal struggles, or ideas.
As kids, Janet’s parents often took her and her sister camping throughout our beautiful country - including coastal towns, waterfalls in Mpumalanga, the Drakensberg, the West coast, Eastern Cape, and annual visits to the family farm in Upington in the Northern Cape. This spurred a deep love and affinity for nature and animals which inspires and guides a lot of her creative work. Other influences, interests and inspiration include people, other artists, magazines, film, performance art, spirituality, and culture. This results in a varied set of influences on Janet’s art and creative work - which ranges widely between digital illustration, mixed media painting, drawing, assemblage, sculpture and installation.
Her work seems fairly fragmented due to the diversity of materials and amount of experimentation, but on closer inspection a repetition of subject matter and overall production methods create a unity. The subject matter usually revolves around the natural environments that we find ourselves in and our reaction or interaction with these environments; while production methods are usually mixed media, digital and photographic prints, experimental assemblage pieces, or largely drawing-based compositions of landscapes and animals.
Selected Exhibitions
VAN-Guard Winelands Group Exhibition | Durbanville Hills, Western Cape.
8 June - 18 July 2010.African Oddyssey | Group Exhibition, Raw Vision Gallery, Woodstock, Cape Town.
May - July 2010.Sex, Cake, Death | Group Exhibition, Wessel Snyman Creative, Cape Town.
1-3 May 2010
State of Mind | Group Exhibition, VANSA Spin Space, Cape Town.
30 November - 11 December 2009.Sangisa Sangisa | Group Exhibition, VANSA Spin Space, Cape Town.
21 September - 2 October 2009.AVA members Exhibition | Group Exhibition, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town.
27 July – 15 August 2009.MOLO LOMO | Group Lomography Exhibition, Thupelo Greatmore Studios.
23 April - 6 May 2009.Unified: Unpretty, Unclean, Underneath, Unnatural | Quartet Group exhibition, Eat Your Words Artspace, Vereeniging. 2 – 19 December 2008.
BoereChinese | Group Exhibition, Gallery at Duncan Yard, Hatfield, Pta.
7 November– 22 December 2008.Dabbling in Digital Dichotomies | Group Exhibition, Magpie Gallery, Irene, Pta.
6 - 23 September 2008.Between the lines | Quartet Group exhibition, Gallery at Duncan Yard, Hatfield, Pta.
11 - 28 October 2008.
Workshops, Festivals & Performances
25 & 26 June 2010 | Participating artist in the Great Walk and More Arts Festival held in Greatmore Street, Woodstock. Also included a performance art piece
March 2010 | Professional Practice for Artists, presented and facilitated by Les Cohn and Tarryn Cohn from Art Source, and Theresa Lizamore from Art Space Gallery (Johannesburg), held at VANSA Western Cape.
October 2009 | 350 Action day. Performance art in Palmer Road, Muizenberg, as part of Communtree's programme.
2009 | Member of an arts collective called Sangisa Sangisa, focusing on contemporary art and creative expression, installation and performance art .August 2009 | Participated in the Performance Art workshop presented by Spier Contemporary and the African Centre, facilitated by Jay Pather.
April 2009 | Participated in Lomography Workshop with Fernando Badiali from Exposure Gallery at Greatmore Studios, Woodstock, Cape Town.
2006 | Completed the S.I. Tutor Training Programme at The Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark.
Formal Education
2006 | B TECH: Graphic Design (Cum Laude). The Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark.
2005 | N.Dip: Graphic Design. The Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark.
2002 | Senior Certificate with Merit. Transvalia High School, Vanderbijlpark.
2000 | Certificate in Entrepreneurship. Potchefstroom University, Vanderbijlpark.
Recognition|Awards
2006 | Granted NRF Student Assistmentship by the National Research Foundation (NRF)
2005 | Merit Award | Best illustration on exhibition at the Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark.
2005 | Design Finalist for Student Goldpack Competition hosted by The Institute of Packaging (SA) & Sappi
2005 | Granted ISTD Membership by meeting standards in student project. the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD), U.K.
2004 & 2003 | Awarded as best academic Graphic Design student in year group at the Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark.
Professional Experience
8 - 26 June 2010
Assistance with coordination of Great Walk and More Festival 2010 at Greamore Studios, Woodstock.
12 – 28 April 2010
Interim Gallery Manager, Wessel Snyman Creative, 17 Bree Street, Cape Town. Involved with coordinating the opening, sales and duration of the City Slickers Poster Show, which opened on 16 April 2010 at Wessel Snyman Creative.
2009 - 2010
Facilitation of workshops at White Rabbit Studios, Gardens, Cape Town.July 2007 – present
Practicing fine artist. Associated with Sangisa Sangisa art collective, The Gallery at Duncan Yard (Pretoria), the AVA (Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town), Greatmore Studios (Cape Town), White Rabbit Studios (Cape Town), Wessel Snyman Creative and several online art communities.2009
Freelance/voluntary writer for Cape Town Live.Jan 2004 – present
Freelance illustrator & graphic designer.
Clients include: Optima Training, Ace Marketing, Fibreway, Abasunguli Training Specialists, The Ad Factory, The Gallery at Duncan Yard, Write to the Point, Eco Doc, and Intersport.Jan 2007 – June 2009
Graphic designer at:
Media Hunter, Cape Town (2009); “it’s called advertising”, Pretoria (2007-2008); Profitcreative, Pretoria (2007); The Adfactory, Johannesburg (2007)Jan – Oct 2006
Graphic Design Student Tutor. The Vaal University of Technology.Dec 2005
Graphic designer and layout artist. Corals Publishers, Vanderbijlpark.