Jane Cherry Case began sketching in the first grade and earned a commercial art degree from Central State University in Oklahoma in 1976.

She worked in pen and ink for an advertising agency before she had three children and decided to stay home with them.

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But when she decorated her children’s rooms, she couldn’t find pictures she liked. So she drew pen and ink designs of dinosaurs and Raggedy Ann dolls and painted them with watercolors.

Friends saw the drawings and liked them, so she expanded her collection to other designs, such as teddy bears and bunnies.

“It wasn’t a hobby, because I’ve always been involved in art,” Case says. “But I wanted to do more.”

Case created a studio in the garage of her Lake Highlands home and last year began experimenting with heart designs. Her first piece included five hearts, representing her three children, her and her husband.

Since then, her brightly colored heart collection has been shown in local venues such as Art Encounter, the Bath House Cultural Center and Flip’s restaurant.

“I felt right doing the pen and ink,” Case says. “The heart is so universal.”

The hearts range in size from a 5-by-7-inch Mini Heart, which costs $38, to a 20-by-24-inch Heart Attack, which costs $325.

“I close my eye, and I see colors,” Case says. “Especially late at night.”

Her latest venture involves corrugated art, which was popular in the 19th century. The pieces are formed into wrinkles or pleats, and when you look at them from different angles, you see different images.

“You don’t grow if you don’t experiment,” Case says. “Nothing’s final. I’m still experimenting.”

For more information on Case’s art, contact Art Encounters at 340-1595 or at 325 Northlake Shopping Center, at Northwest Highway and Ferndale, or Case can be reached through her fax at 891-8202.