Biography

There are two things that Janice learned early on from her father, whose honesty and fine craftsman skills as a carpenter were very influential in her development as she grew. She learned that our lives today rests on the backs of those who came before us and that we should never take anything granted...She also learned that whatever you do, you should always put your best into it.
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Thinking Art is how one client described Janice Schoultz Mudd’s luminous, highly textured, mixed media paintings. Her abstractions use imagery that we recognize to explore the historical, scientific, cultural and spiritual context that is woven into the fabric of our lives.

A native of New Vernon, New Jersey, Janice was four when her 87 year old grandmother came to live with her family. Over the next ten years the drastically different life experiences and outlook of this 19th century woman became food for a child’s curious mind and big imagination. “What did the world sound like with no radio, tv or phonograph?”… “How did sailors travel the oceans before there were maps?”.…”No one smiles in those old photographs; were they real people?”

At the age of 18, Janice enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, spent her first year in the required Foundation Arts program and consequently pursued degrees in Interior Design and Architecture. While working in these fields, she made her home with her husband and two sons in Westchester County, NY and the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC.. During this time she developed her ability to transform ideas into reality. Skills honed from years of practice in these fields are reflected in her artwork today.

Prior to moving with her family to St Louis, MO and then Kansas City, Janice  began painting again; first with watercolors, then with acrylics and eventually an added mixture of many mediums and collage pieces. Before too long, the child's questions began to inform the imagery on her canvases and all kinds of experiments with materials and techniques were taking place.