Jane Burn
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janeburn.bsky.social
Jane Burn
@janeburn.bsky.social
2K followers 1.7K following 290 posts
Poet, Writer, Artist, Maker. Person with Autism. Person with a hEDS. Kindness is so very important. Bios are difficult! I do much writing on https://burnj.substack.com/
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janeburn.bsky.social
I painted and donated this watercolour of two Palestinian Sunbirds for @sidhepress.bsky.social
and hope that it helps to make a difference to people in need.
This is my watercolour painting of two Palestinian Sunbirds. One perches above the other on a cream/grey branch. The bird at the top faces right and has an irridescent blue/green/purple head, neck and chest and tail/ Its wings and underbelly are golden browns. The bird underneath faces left and has a pale grey head and chest with darker grey/brown shading. Its wings and tail are grey and darker brown/grey stripes. The background is a blue-grey and russet brown wash.
September 22, 2025 at 9:59 AM
janeburn.bsky.social
I was asked by @candlestickpress.bsky.social
if I would like to do the cover for their 'Almanac: Twelve Poems for 2026' I picked up a paintbrush and paper and the flowers kept on coming, coming, coming. Available here: www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/alm...
This is a watercolour painting of a huge vartiety of flowers - a corucopia of flowers pressed very close next to one another, so numerous they are. There is a large pink peony, a peach rose, and a burgundy clematis. There are smaller flowers - white oxeye daisy, yellow trefoil, yellow sow's thistle, red poppy pink sweet william, orange geom, purple clover, blue forget-me-not, purple aubretia, red and white hot lips salvia, burgundy snapdragon, blue chicory, lilac hosta flower. There are many grees leaves painted behind the flowers.
September 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
What a pleasure to have poems included in two of the latest Candlestick Press pamphlets. I love these pamphlets & have quite a number of them on my shelf. I've a poem in Ten Poems about Weeds and one in Herbs. Their pamphlet launches are free & always wonderful :-)
Image description: on a dark brown wooden table are two pamphlets. The one on the left has a small white rectangle at the top with the title 'Ten Poems about weeds' in black text. The pamphlets cover has a yellow background with colouful illustrations of assorted weeds on it. There is a white bookmark poking out with a lilac square with a herb on it. The one on the right has a small white rectangle at the top with the title 'Ten Poems about Herbs' in black text. The pamphlets cover has a lilac background with colouful illustrations of assorted herbs on it. There is a white bookmark poking out with a yellow square with a dandelion on it. Image description: a white page has an excerpt of a poem's black text on it, as follows: Taraxacum / I used to think it was becasue their yellow heads were manes. / Dandy little lions, I said. Free and nodding. I remember / how my gunea pigs used to squeak when I brought them / a handful I had picked. Their little eyes, their quickly crunching / teeth. K, A, C and E are their vitamins. Potassioum, iron and zinc. There is a little bit of colour on the right - a yellow background with assorted weeds upon it Image description: a white page has an excerpt of a poem's black text on it, as follows: The Forest Knows / I will stabd still, and I will breathe - / quietly, as if I do not want to be discovered. / I will breather deeply, slowly / and navigate this intricate web of smells - Image description: a close-up photograph of a brown wood bookshelf with assorted books on it, and a tiny ceramic bottle with a cottage printed on it.
May 12, 2025 at 9:21 AM
janeburn.bsky.social
I am here, in a place I never thought I would be - a
Bloodaxe Books anthology, edited by @rachaelboast.bsky.social Boast - included, and it feels very emotional. www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/...
Image description: a dark blue book cover with red text which reads 'Versus Versus', lighter blue text that reads '100 Poems by Deaf, Disabled & Neurodivergent Poets'. In the cebtre is an artwork made from a pattern of wiggly red and blue lines. Image description: a close-cropped photo of a pair of pages in a book - the pages are white and the text is black. It is a thin photo which only shows the names of the poets and the titles of their poems. Text on right as follows: JANET FRAME I Take into My Arms More Than I Can Bear To Hold. Text on left as follows: JANE BURN An Evanescent Garden after 'Horses Skull with Pink Rose by Georgia O'Keeffe, 1931
May 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
'Crow, Landscape I, II, III & IV' some of my latest pictures made using my crow linocut, tissue and offcuts from the printing process. I dream one day that I might have some artwork in a gallery.
A rectangle piece of white paper on which a blue printed linocut image of a flying crow with outstretched wings flies in front and to the left of a landscape of stylised layers of hills in blue, yellow, red and black. In the sky is a white moon or sun round shape with blue traces in it. The shape is surrounded by yellow. A rectangle piece of white paper on which a blue printed linocut image of a flying crow with outstretched wings flies in front and to the left of a landscape of stylised layers of hills in blue, yellow, red. In the sky is a white moon or sun round shape with blue traces of colour. The shape is surrounded by yellow. A rectangle piece of white paper on which a red printed linocut image of a flying crow with outstretched wings flies in front and to the left of a landscape of stylised layers of hills in blue, yellow, red and black. In the sky is a yellow sun round shape. The shape is surrounded by red. A rectangle piece of paper on which three printed linocut images of a flying crow with outstretched wings, one corw dark blue, one ochre, one lighter blue fly in front and to the left of a landscape of stylised layers in blue and cream.
April 30, 2025 at 2:58 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
My latest artwork - It is a collage, is A2 sized and its title is 'The History of the Whales'. I feel endless love and sadness toward whales
a rectangle piece of white paper is covered in collaged papers that have been cut in red and black strips to represent the history of pain whaling has left behind in the oceans. On top are round shapes in blue, white, red, grey and black, which represent a number of things: spots on Orca whales, suns, moons and bubbles of air. There are many shapes in black, red, white, blue and grey cut to resemble the outline of whales - there are two mothers with their calves. The white whales represent the ghosts of vanished whales.
April 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
I've completed a pair of paintings, A2 size. I've been inspired by a book I've recently read. I'm going to write a Substack about them soon. This book has given me a lot to think about & words were not enough to process it, so art came into the equation too.
Image description: a white rectangle piece of paper is painted with a number of abstract circular shapes, and circular lines, and circular spirals. The colours used are shades of blue, green, yellow and brown. Image description: a white rectangle piece of paper is painted with a number of abstract square and rectangle shapes. There are many straight lines cross-crossing the painting. The colours used are black, red, brown and dark pink.
March 16, 2025 at 6:32 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
A poem from my @ninearchespress.bsky.social
collection The Apothecary of Flight. I am a person with autism who also struggles with hypermiobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome & so much of life is diffucult. Poetry helps me to express myself.
Interoception I am lying straight and keeping very still relishing the weight of the blanket above, pressing on my flesh. Can you not feel your bladder flinch? Hurry! before you void an ocean, before you piss your bed It’s time for my daily paradigms Every morning, early-riser I haunt these kind, unpopulated hours for as long as I can prise the shell of my bruxism splint from my night-milled teeth—their plastic echo chewed almost through. I cannot avoid last night’s smeared plates—somebody else’s snow of crumb’s. Every single morning, I think this is not the place where I live, this olfactory input nightmare stink Oh but it’s so lovely and quiet says sensation-avoiding self when nobody else is up No banging, no hammermouthfartshoutargument noise How are you feeling today? I don’t know. I don’t Where, I said is my homeostasis? I grip my hand to the table This is my vestibular pain I feel the floor’s imperceptible downward tilt like the princess felt the pea Oh myheadmyheadmy head come to the cool of the tabletop, forehead to flat Tell yourself that you will not be thrown from the surface of the world I think therefore therefore, therefore I am alone. Come go awayshut up. Please stay Descartes proved his existence because he doubted his existence The moments I doubt myself are the moments that make me alive Don’t touch me. I am untouchable This couple on the bus all touchy-feely are making me want to scratch beneath my own skin I will show you I love you in ways that do not fall so easily from the tongue I am a thousand miles from where we are I am alexithymia’s wall Oh beautiful loneliness There is no room on the seat next to me I am sorry, sorry My handbag is Cerberus. My heart batters against its cave I am afraid that my mouth will form the first thought that pops into my head
March 13, 2025 at 2:48 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
My new picture 'In the Womb of the Earth' I wanted to express the importance of sheltering within art - while I'm doing it, it's safe place - how important it is to find places of shelter in nature, important to even imagine these sheltering places, imagine yourself into them. A2, inkpen.
Image description: A naked human curls in a foetal postition in a hole in the middle of numerous leaves, fruits and seeds. The picture is drawn using black ink pen and is in black and white.
February 13, 2025 at 10:51 AM
janeburn.bsky.social
I am running another nature-themed workshop, this time in person for the wonderful @balticgateshead.bsky.social on Sat 22 Feb,14:00-16:00. If anyone would like to come, the session is free and you can follow this link to find booking details, as well as their other events baltic.art/whats-on/WF-...
This is a screenshot of an internet page. The background is white and the text is black. It lists details of a number of creative climate-themed workshops - the link to them all is above
January 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
I've decorated a wooden tree as a positive move toward accepting another part of me - I have been a zebra for 53 years - I just didn't know that I was. I have included the other symbol as I have had a few years to get more used to that part of me (though work is still very much ongoing :-)
Image description: a wooden simple shape of a Christmas tree is decorated with black and white zebra stripes and there is a raindow (red, orange, yellow, blue, green & purple) coloured infinity symbol at the centre. There is a dark grey background. Image description: a wooden simple shape of a Christmas tree is decorated with black and white zebra stripes and there is a raindow (red, orange, yellow, blue, green & purple) coloured infinity symbol at the centre. There is a brown displau cabinet filled with ornaments in the background.
December 17, 2024 at 4:40 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
I am so very pleased to have a poem included in this amazing anthology - I went to the launch just to listen to the other readers and it was all so wondeful. Here is my poem x
This is a photograph of a poem upon a cream page - the text is black and is as follows: This is Tree Time The tree’s long shadow moves around the day – noon is blossom. I remember a time before I became invisible, when I was dating this guy whose pet hate was those people that take up all the room on the path, with their shopping in one hand and their walking sticks in the other – and you can’t get past them. It’s almost like they are walking that slowly on purpose. He said I want to shove them over. If he saw me now I bet he’d be really, really glad that we broke up. Perhaps he has already tutted behind me on a pavement somewhere, and didn’t even recognise the woman that he used to say he loved – perhaps he rolled his eyes, mimed the act of pushing me out of the way to whoever he happened to be with. He did this. I know. Perhaps he would have scrambled over my back like an inconvenient bridge. I tell the tree how I worry that I have become a ghost and this is why people walk at me or through me, as if I’m not there. This is a photograph of a poem upon a cream page - the text is black and is as follows: Sometimes I make it an experiment – hold my ground, instead of removing myself from their paths. Sometimes there is a last-minute oh! Sometimes I am knocked to one side with a bump that hurts me for a while. Sometimes the crowd parts around me as if they were a river and I a rock, spoiling its flow. The world works its wheels around us. Tree says s l o w and stay exactly as you are – this is Tree Time. Imagine your stick is a root, planting you to the ground One o’clock is a page of birchbark, peeling, silver, written with light.
November 20, 2024 at 5:44 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
Does anyone else, through either necessity or preference, wear a bed hat? This is mine - if you do too, what does your bed hat look like? Nothing rude please. I look at pjs in the shops and think, where's the bed hat then? I wear one as a) warm & b) stops me feeling like my head will pop off 👒
A pale pink skinned woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes wears a white jumper with black Mickey Mouses on it. She is smiling and lying on a green pillow. She is wearing a pink knitted wool bed hat with flowers on the side.
November 19, 2024 at 8:21 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
Thank you so much for your lovely follows! It's been a while since I felt so loved😍If I haven't followed back yet, it's 'cause things are moving faster here than my head is. In the meantime, here's a #watercolour painting I did of a pig who likes to wear a wig - part of a story of I made #art
A white paper background. On it is painted a seated peach-coloured pig wearing a yellow waistcoat and a red cravat. He is sitting looking at a fancy tall powdered wig with a pink feather stuck in it. The wig is on a pale linen and brown wood wig stand. The floor is red and the background is blue with white dots.
November 17, 2024 at 7:54 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
I write ALT/image descriptions on any word doc I happen to have open, then copy+paste them in. Sometimes they get written in the midst of other work. When I re-open a doc to carry on working, I get random suprises like this which looks like a stage direction on how I should be writing.
A screenshot of some black text on a white background. The text reads: Image description: A black pen sketch of a close-up of a human egg. It looks like many smaller circles around other larger circles. It is labelled with lots of words, which I will write out below. Intensely
November 16, 2024 at 5:07 PM
janeburn.bsky.social
A pale pink-skinned woman with blue eyes and a blonde fringe wears brown framed glasses and a rd, yellow, black and blue polo neck top. She is resting her chin on her hand. Behind her are books, pictures, skulls and a lace cloth. She is smiling.
November 15, 2024 at 4:24 PM