Heike Jane Zimmermann
ecological science and fiction art
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Jane Zimmermann is an artist and illustrator based in Tromsø, Norway.
She loves exploring nature and it`s wonderful small and large worlds
within it through her ecological science and fiction art.
Her art explores ecological themes such as loss of biodiversity,
with a focus on the often-overlooked small worlds that play vital roles
in our ecological cycles. In her detailed work on botanical, entomological, ornithological and ecological art, she loves both the affective and scientific exploration of nature. Each painting process becomes an immersive experience
of learning and interaction, sometimes weaving in a fictional touch that
enriches the narrative.
She usually works with watercolour and graphite, but also likes to explore ink techniques, eco-plant-printing and other creative processes. A key part of her process is to create pigments from all sorts of plants and stones to enhance the viewer’s connection with nature and the narrative behind each artwork.
She is regularly featured in international exhibitions and sells her original paintings in international galleries and also has ongoing collaborations at the intersections of science and art with researchers across the natural and health sciences, as well as the humanities.
If you would like to work with her or have any other questions,
please get in touch via jane(ad)limnlines.com or DM on Instagram.
More About me
Ever since I can remember I have had pens and brushes in my hand and was doodling something, imagining new worlds and characters in all shapes and sizes. Until today, my personal and professional life have felt like a continuous unfolding of the inevitable, a weaving together of my natural passion for drawing with my curiosity and wonderment for the world. I feel deeply grateful for all the things I have learned and experienced on this journey so far and often find it hard to believe that the next exciting adventure is somehow always right around the corner.
After training in visual communications and marketing in Germany, I initially worked in large international advertisement and digital agencies for several years before starting uforepublic.com my own boutique design agency with one of my closest friends and colleagues. Over our 10 years in Germany, we’ve had the pleasure of developing brand identities, websites, logos, icons, animations, marketing material, online games, and more for an incredibly diverse array of clients including the RBS Royal Bank of Scotland, Miele, AT&T, Sportswear International Magazine, Deutsche Bank, Union Investment, several German municipalities, and dozens of smaller clients from all around the world.
In the beginning of 2009, we decided to take a big leap of fate and move our business to the glistering city of Hong Kong, setting up shop in its beating heart with a bit of a twist by adding the city’s first-ever gallery for low-brow and graffiti art to our business. After featuring some of my artworks in the opening vernissage, I continued as the gallery’s director and curated exhibitions with artists from Australia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Italy, and Japan. At the same time, we continued to expand our design work with local and international clients like the Hong Kong Government, Miele Hong Kong, the German-Swiss International School and many more.
Three years later, I followed up that leap of fate with a leap of love and moved to New Zealand to be with my boyfriend, who is now also my husband and partner in life and crime. Some part of my heart still lives in this beautiful country at the end of the world, with its incredible rain forests, endless shoreline, and astonishing flora and fauna. After freelancing for international giants like FCB and smaller boutique design agencies in Auckland, I found myself expanded my skills in an agency specializing in spatial and museum design, storytelling, and visitor experience. But the real difference that New Zealand made was to explode my passion for children’s illustration on the one hand, and both realistic and fictional botanical, entomological, avian, and ecological art on the other, and I have been pouring loads of time and heart into these ever since.
With jumping across continents and oceans now nearly a habit, my husband and I moved to Norway in 2019 and are loving our life between the ocean, mountains, and fjords up here in the Arctic circle. Here, I work as an independent designer, illustrator, and artist, to combine the entire breadth and wealth of my experience into children’s books and illustrations, brand, packaging, and spatial design, ecological science and fiction art, as well as illustration-based design and storytelling.
If you read my story and look at all the diverse work I’ve done, you might feel like it is hard to pin me down, and that’s ok. I don’t like to feel constrained, and I don’t want anyone else to feel like that either. The truth is that I’ve found nothing but strength in the wealth of skills and experiences I have gained over the years and the range and flexibility that I have developed as a result. If you want to work with me, you can rest assured that I will not make it about me, but use all of my skills and experience to understand what it is that you would like to see, feel and express. And we will have fun in the process of making this a reality together, which is easily as important as the result itself, because adventures are not defined by the places they take us to, but the journey that gets us there and the people we travel with.
EXHIBITIONS
- Annual Artist for Conservation Exhibition 2022 Canada –
SEE ARTWORK
- Annual Artist for Conservation Exhibition 2021 Canada
- For the Love of Botanicals 2021 New Zealand
- Annual Artist for Conservation Exhibition 2020 Canada
- Big Show of Little Botanical Works 2020 New Zealand
- Botanical Exhibtion SpaceStudioGallery 2020 New Zealand
- Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 2020 Australia
- Solo Exhibition Mairangi Arts Center 2019 New Zealand
- World Wide Botanical Illustration Exhibition 2018 New Zealand
And others in earlier years in Hong Kong, Beijing and Germany
WORKSHOPS
- December 2024
Creating Pigments and Watercolors from Nature
Online only / www.botanicalartnz.org - Juli 2023
Breaking the rules and having fun:
Mixed Media Art in Botanical Art
Online only / www.botanicalartnz.org - April 2023
Using sculptering to think and talk about Geoscience
EGU 23 / Vienna
www.egu23.eu - October 2022
Mixmedia Demo Workshop
Online only
www.botanicalartnz.org - May 2022
Sculpting at sea
On board the research vessel RV Kronprinz Haakon / Norway
akma-project.com/akma2-oceansenses/sculpting-at-sea
Publications
CHILDREN`S BOOKS
- Bodhi`s Button, by Chad Williams
- Hedgie`s Bitcoin Story, by Jeff McLean
- Little Creatures form the sea, by AKMA Project
- Foraminitales from the Ocean Series, by AKMA Project
- Little Phantom, by Jil Atkins Ransom Publishing
- The Lady with the Lamp, by Stephen Rickard Ransom Publishing
- Bill Fell, by Stephen Rickard Ransom Publishing
- Brownie the Bear, by Filp Maric
- The Gigantic Turnip, by Stephen Rickard Ransom Publishing
- Looking for Pets, by Stephen Rickard Ransom Publishing
- A Wish for a Fish, by Jil Atkins Ransom Publishing
- Rin to the Sun, by Stephen Rickard Ransom Publishing
- The Adventures of Cuppy the Crab, by David Fountain
OTHER
- Artist Blog Interview, EGU Jan 2024
Artist in residence
April 2023 EGU General Assembly 2023 egu23.eu
May 2022 RV Kronprins Haakon akma-project.com
(Norwegian icebreaking polar research vessel)
Awards
Red Award
Sushi Ninja Mascots 2018 New Zealand
Best Design Award Finalist
Tourism Holdings Annual Report 2015 New Zealand
Best Design Award Finalist
Auckland Kindergarten Branding 2014 New Zealand
NOTABLE CLIENTS
Artic Auditories Hydrospheres in the High North uit.no/project/arcticauditories
AKMA-Project www.akma-project.com
Ransom Publishing, UK
Pesko Sport AG, Switzerland
Auckland Kindergarten Association, New Zealand
KINZ Daycare, New Zealand
Environmental Physiotherapy
Meyer Burger Solarpanels, Germany
Australian Museum, Sydney
Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland,
New Zealand
Chelsea Sugar Factory, Auckland, New Zealand
ZGF Center for Societal Progress, Frankfurt, Germany
RBS Royal Bank of Scotland, Germany
Deutsche Bank, Germany
Miele, Hong Kong & Germany
Union Investment, Germany
AT&T, Dallas TX, USA
Hong Kong Government
Speights Brewery, Dunedin, New Zealand
Carl’s Jr, New Zealand
SeaLink Ferries, New Zealand