Jane Evans Meyer

Jane Evans Meyer - artist/designer, mother of five, and a deep lover of nature - was born on May 15,1933 in Buffalo, New York, to James Evans and Madeline Biggar Evans. The youngest of three sisters, Jane carved her own path, took risks to pursue her dreams, never ceased to create and teach art in its many forms, lived on her own terms and sought new experiences through travel and at times a nomadic lifestyle.

Soon after graduating from Wheaton College in 1954 with a major in Philosophy and minor in Russian, Jane taught kindergarten at the Park School of Buffalo and met and married Arthur Meyer, her husband of 21 years. In 1965, Jane and her family took their first step toward an alternative path and moved to Long Island, joining a number of Quakers to found Friends World College, a radical experiment in international learning whose mission was to help students become “global citizens.” As a faculty member, Jane drew upon her artistic talents to coordinate the arts program, which included organizing and running workshops in painting, sculpture, ceramics, leathercraft, shelter building, and weaving. Over the years at Friends World, Jane also co-led study trips in the Southern U.S. and Mexico, many times with her own children in tow.

One of the greatest leaps of faith Jane made was in 1969 when she and her family moved to a farm in rural New Brunswick, Canada, as part of the “Back to the Land'' movement. Living in a wood-heated farmhouse for nearly a decade, Jane became an active member of the local community, advocating for and receiving approval from the New Brunswick Department of Education to establish an alternative elementary school, organizing a community film series, working part-time in a local general store, teaching grades 1-7 as a substitute teacher in the local public schools, and teaching figure drawing to adults at Woodstock Community College.

Upon her return to Buffalo in 1976, Jane began a second career in higher education, as Assistant to the Director of Media Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, a program focused on film history and experimental video and computer art. After a decade in Buffalo, and seeing her children through college, Jane moved to California, working for a few years as an Administrative Professional for the All Saints Aids Service Center before retiring.

Wherever Jane lived, she continued to create art, which she exhibited in numerous art shows and for which she received a number of awards. She generously gave friends and family her artwork, many commenting over the years how much they love their treasured pieces. Her goal was always simply, as stated on her resume, “to create.” Her open-minded perspective enabled her to connect with others across generations who sought her counsel, and yet she also respected and appreciated solitude (though she was never without a dog by her side.) After retiring, she spent half of every year living alone in a small cabin she designed and built in 1956 on Portlock Island in Lake Huron, Canada. Only reachable by boat, this cabin for decades had no electricity or plumbing and was heated by a wood stove (only in her retirement years did she install a solar panel, a composting toilet, a water heater and a shower.) Living simply and embracing the ideals espoused in E. F. Schumacher’s classic “Small is Beautiful,” she spent much of her time painting, cultivating a small garden of herbs and day lilies, visiting with family and friends and “chopping wood and carrying water,” as she would say. Jane is survived by her five children: Alden, Turi, Alexander, Carey, and Megan, and six grandchildren: Johanna, Adeline, Jacob, Walker, Flynn, and Beckett.