Jean Stephenson
Acrylic
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My interests are quite broad, and my artwork is their reflection. One of my mentors, the late USC Professor Jae Carmichael, once told me I resembled a character described by the nonsense writer Stephen Leacock: ”He mounted his trusty steed and galloped off madly in all directions.”
Thus my work ranges from pure joy at the beauty of nature to horror at the political state of the world. And because I was influenced at an early age (and still am) by reading all of the humor I could find, many of my art pieces contain a bit of tongue-in-cheek. My mediums are equally eclectic: watercolor. acrylic, clay, fiber art, photography and writing.
As a sculptor and writer I have combined life-sized soft sculptured creatures called “Whimsicans”, with satirical bios. Eighteen of these have been recently published in a book entitled “Whimsicans, Modern Day Fairy Tales For Everyone”. I have also created a series of small clay sculptures, mostly depicting fat naked ladies exercising.
My photography wanders from close-up flower studies to staged scenes of a stuffed animal and his adventures to an award-winning shot of a real proboscis monkey in the Cincinnati Zoo.
And my paintings, well they are all over the place. Figurative, abstract, experimental, humorous, you name it.
I have recently been commissioned to do some artwork for a multi-million dollar estate in Newport Coast. If my book also sells well these could be steps in the direction of a long time goal of an assistant who patiently picks up the scraps and cleans the brushes as I slosh along with my creative output leaving a wake of unmade beds and piled up papers. If I could just get better organized….
To purchase call:
310-991-7144 or e-mail gabrielle.artistsstudio.pvac@gmail.com
