Jean Hess

About 

Resume     -     Artist Statement          

 

Some art informs. Some delights. The paintings of Jean Hess do both, inviting the viewer to wade into the canvas, to be immersed in organic layers of flowers and leaves, grids and maps, quotations, the handwritten names of plants and animals, people and places, graffiti, and the foggy nebulae of starry constellations.  The viewer experiences an emotional emergence of sorts, then the slow comprehension of connective tissues, liquidity, a cerebral recognition of blending elements that shape the composition of the work.  History. Geography.  Stories told over generations.  Love gained and lost.  Displacement.  Renewal and hope.  Beauty chased through with vibrant color and amorphous forms.  Real lives intertwined with imagistic metaphor.  These are painting to live with, to view and review with every phase of light and shade.  The many levels of media-acrylic paint, pencil, ink, wallpaper, organic structure, and natural forms captured in transparent yet visible brushstrokes - hint at the possibility of revelation and understanding.  To the empty canvas, the artist brings both her found history and the undiscovered fragments of a history yet to be shaped into beauty that will eventually translate into truth.  History and art intertwine: for the artist in the act of creation, for the viewer by gazing at the surface.

Jeanne McDonald
Knoxville, Tennessee 


Jeanne McDonald is a published writer of fiction and non-fiction who lives and works in Knoxville, TN. Jeanne's most recent book is the novel, WATER DREAMS.  University Press of Mississippi, 2003