EPL Art Gallery

Jana Hargarten spent her childhood in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where she played Lego, built underwater Barbie houses in the pool, and frequented the tree forts of her brother's friends. She endlessly re-arranged the furniture in her room, but rarely cleaned it.

Her interest in art began at the early ago of three, in the basement of her babysitter's house. All the walls of the play room were chalkboard covered and the children could scrawl wherever the muses came to visit. Jana's art training began in Gail Adams' basement and though Jana skipped a class or two to go biking or swimming Gail always allowed her back into her tutelage. While a teenager in highschool, her parents divorced and she and her brother and her mom and dad were brokenhearted. Jana spent a lot of time neglecting her homework and crying and drawing and drawing and drawing in the basement in front of the TV.

Basements, not a great source of inspiration, have nonetheless played their part in driving Jana's ambition to succeed. She refused to believe basements were her destiny. She wanted to rise above the rumpus room, continue her education and get on with the business of exposing her underground genius. In the year 2000 she was accepted into the college of Fine Art and Design at the University of Alberta where she spent three years painting in the basement of HUB mall. After graduation this fall, she'll continue to work in her home studio, a basement apartment in South Edmonton.