About

Louisiana Artist, Printmaker & the Person Behind Cajun Fuel

I’m Jane Martin, a Louisiana-born artist and printmaker living and working in Laurel, Mississippi. I make colorful, original linoprint artwork inspired by Southern food, Louisiana culture, household nostalgia, plants, animals, and whatever strange little thing has caught my attention lately.

Cajun Fuel is where all of those things get to live together.

I was born in Louisiana and raised on both sides of the Louisiana-Mississippi border, so the South has always worked its way into what I make. Sometimes that looks very obviously Southern, like crawfish, shrimp, okra, catfish, Mardi Gras, or an alligator. Other times it shows up in an old kitchen object, a plant I recognize from somebody’s yard, or something that reminds me of home without necessarily screaming SOUTHERN ART at you.

How I Became a Printmaker

I did not start out planning to become a printmaker.

I went to the University of Mississippi for graphic design and painting, but I found printmaking years later on my own. In January 2024, I started carving rubber stamps after seeing someone carve a logo stamp online. I carved my first linoleum block the next month, and apparently that was all it took.

What started with tiny stamps and simple block prints very quickly became larger and increasingly complicated linocuts. I started experimenting with reduction printmaking, multiple layers of color, different inks, papers, registration methods, and basically anything else that gave me an excuse to keep carving.

Now it is my full-time work

Original Linoprint Artwork, Made by Hand

Everything starts with a piece of linoleum.

I transfer my design onto linoleum and carve the image by hand before rolling ink across the surface with a brayer. The block is then pressed onto paper by hand, with a tortilla press, or with the cold press laminator.

For reduction linoprints, I repeat that process again and again. I print a color, carve more of the block away, print another color, carve again, and keep going until the artwork is finished. By the end, much of the original block has literally been carved away.

That means the linoprint artwork you see in my shop is the original artwork. It is not a photograph or reproduction of a painting somewhere else. Each print has actually gone through my hands, my ink, my block, and my press here in Laurel, MS.

Why Cajun Fuel?

Cajun Fuel gives me room to make the things I actually want to make.

I love Southern food. I love Louisiana culture. I love bright color, old household objects, weird plants, bones, animals, things that are a little spooky, and making artwork out of subjects that might not immediately seem like they belong on somebody’s wall.

You might find a crawfish next to a stick of butter, a skeleton hand near a flower, or an alligator showing up somewhere it probably shouldn’t. There doesn’t have to be a giant wall between my colorful Southern artwork and the stranger things I want to carve.

That mix is Cajun Fuel.

From My Laurel, Mississippi Studio to You

I make my work from my home studio in Laurel, Mississippi, but a lot of Cajun Fuel happens on the road.

Throughout the year, I travel to art festivals, craft fairs, markets, and other events around Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and beyond. Getting to put the work directly into someone’s hands and explain that, yes, I really carved it, is still one of my favorite parts of doing this.

If you can’t catch me at a market, you can find my original linoprints and other artwork right here online.

The Delightful Print Club

I also run The Delightful Print Club, my monthly snail mail art club.

Every month gives me a reason to carve something new and gives members a tiny piece of original artwork to look forward to in their mailbox. I send hand-printed ACEO artwork, stickers, notes, and, depending on the subscription, larger linoprints and other extras.

It is essentially my excuse to keep making tiny art and sending considerably better things through the mail than bills.

Stick Around

Whether you found Cajun Fuel because you were looking for a Louisiana artist, stumbled across my work at an art festival, saw me carving something on the internet, or just really needed a linoprint of a crawfish, I’m glad you ended up here.

You can shop my latest artwork, join The Delightful Print Club, follow along with what I’m carving, or sign up for my newsletter to see what comes off the press next.