Jayne Siroshton thinks she might have stopped aging when she turned 9.
The Camas artist is now 48 – or “9 going on 48,” as she said – and has created a world of talking animals with detailed personalities that she turned into numerous portraits, greeting cards and a book. But before all that, it was a world Siroshton spent years building, and a place she eventually brought her daughter to.
When Siroshton’s daughter was about 3, the two frequented this world, which her daughter named Mountain Hood. It was a land of talking animals that only the two of them could get to. They visited regularly until Siroshton’s daughter was about 9 and no longer wanted to.
“I was really sad, because I really enjoyed doing that,” Siroshton said. “I could really see these places in my mind. I could see it so clearly. It was kind of a disaster when she said she didn’t want to go there anymore.”
Luckily for Siroshton, she was visiting Mountain Hood long before it had a name, and she’s continued to visit it since. Growing up in the English countryside, Siroshton used to create backstories for various animals she came across, including her family’s cats. She and her brother had one cat who owned a racehorse, and another cat who thought she was a snail. They used to make each other talk about their cats’ detailed lives when their parents had company over.
“They thought we were crazy. It was all very silly,” she said. “It must have been something we put in the water in England. We always had this kind of thing going on. We didn’t have a lot of toys growing up.”
Siroshton wasn’t the best student in school but always had an interest in art, so her parents encouraged her to draw. Siroshton loved animals from an early age, and knew that’s what she wanted to draw. The first drawing she remembers doing was of a wolf peeking out from behind a tree.
While in England, she started working as an artist, art director and producer of video games, which led her and her husband to move to Los Angeles. She gave up her career when her daughter was young, and painted animal portraits to decorate the baby’s room. She didn’t intend for anyone to see them, but after awhile, she had a house full of animal artwork, from pheasants to rabbits to foxes, all painted from the waist up portrait-style and all wearing clothing.
Since then, she sold paintings and greeting cards with her characters, and recently she self-published her first book, “All Feathers and Hats.” It follows a woman who lives in an abandoned house and meets Vernon, a talking pheasant. She paints a portrait of Vernon, who tells her about other animals living nearby, and sets off on a whimsical adventure.
“It’s an odd little book, a strange book about animals,” Siroshton said. “It’s really meant for adults. It’s not not for children, but I don’t think they’d find it interesting. There’s a lot of social intrigue. I just don’t think there’s kind of a book like it. Maybe there’s a limited audience for a book about speaking pheasants.”
A lot of her work can be found at Camas Gallery, 408 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas, and at www.wildharegreetings.com. Siroshton moved to Camas about three years ago, and she said living in a heavily forested area has helped her work.
“I’ve started painting a lot of predators,” she said. “There’s a bear around here. There are these amazing, huge bobcats here. It’s very inspiring.”
Still, even with a book, greeting cards and paintings for sale, the most fun part for Siroshton is getting to live in this world she created and meet new friends. She starts out by picking an animal and doing some research to get things like fur color correct. While she’s painting the animal, she starts to figure out that animal’s personality and what kind of clothing to paint on. Then, she figures out where that character fits into her ever-expanding world.
“Your imagination can create an alternate reality that you can visit, you can go to and you can be part of and create,” she said. “It’s just the most wonderful tool imaginable. It’s a brilliant gift that everybody has.”
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