Jane Wodening

Interview conducted by Rachel Helm on May 21, 2023 in Denver, CO

Jane Wodening, born Mary Jane Collum, was a writer and artist based in Denver, Colorado. Wodening was perhaps best known for her collaborations with experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, with whom she was married for thirty years and had five children. She played a major role in the avant-garde film movement as co-director, editor, and star in some of Brakhage’s most critically acclaimed films, including Dog Star Man (1964), Cat’s Cradle (1959), and Window Water Baby Moving (1959), in which Wodening is filmed giving birth to the couple’s first child. After her divorce from Brakhage, Jane changed her name to Wodening as a feminine activation of the Germanic god Woden. Wodening published fourteen books, including Book of Gargoyles (1999), Mountain Woman Tales (1994), and a series of interviews she conducted with her former husband entitled Brakhage’s Childhood (2016). Wodening and Schneemann’s relationship began through their mutual connection to Brakhage in the 1950s and deepened after Wodening’s separation from Brakhage in 1986. Jane Wodening died in her home in Denver, Colorado, on November 17, 2023.

In this short excerpt, Wodening talks about sitting for a portrait Schneemann painted of her in 1958.