Jan was raised in Glasgow, Scotland, a city with a strong arts and cultural heritage.
A painter early on she decided to train as a textile designer and received her BA at Loughborough college of Art in England before moving to California. After building a successful business as a surface designer, Jan returned to her first love fine art. She pursued her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute graduating in 2008 and is once again painting, creating installations, sculpture and works on paper.
Jan’s work has been shown in numerous venues including The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Ana, Root Division, The Lab, Red Poppy Art House, The Soap gallery, Arthaus, Diego Rivera Gallery, and Ebert gallery in San Francisco, The Bruno David Gallery in St Louis, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, Gallery Route One in Point Reyes, CA, The Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, Axis Gallery in Sacramento, The Cornaro Art Institute, Cyprus and Site:Brooklyn Gallery in New York.
A cash prize from The Bedford Gallery Guild and Docents Council in Walnut Creek was awarded for her work in 2011. She has been awarded the Djerrassi artist residency for 2012 and The Cornaro Art Institute artist residency for 2013 and 2019. After completion of her stay at the Djerrassi Jan was awarded the John D and Susan P Diekman Fellowship.