Statements by the Artist
“The sensuous shapes, the lush colors and the incredible variety available in flowers and leaves provide infinite opportunity to celebrate their beauty.”
“As a painter and print-maker, I seek to present my personal perception of the world of nature through selective and subjective realism. I choose to celebrate the often unnoticed and unappreciated, to raise a microcosm to a place of importance. Through larger-than-life scale, a strong central image, and compositional structure an intimate space is created that forces the viewer to take the time to look at a world he is usually too busy to see. Often I will use a combination of media to connect the real and my perception of the real, printing the impressions of actual objects along with drawn images.
“There are certain recurring themes in my work, some of which are formal concerns and others of which are conceptual. The theme of frames and barriers and levels of perception falls into both of these categories. Relationships of objects to each other and to their environment is a prime concern of mine both in the real world of nature and in my paintings and prints. Because of my lifetime interest in nature and my concern for man’s relationship to it, natural objects, especially plant forms, are my subject matter. The sensuous shapes, the lush colors, and the incredible variety available in flowers and leaves provide infinite opportunity to celebrate their beauty.”
Statement by Anne Miotke
Adjunct Professor of Art, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Jean’s painting professor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1986 to 1988:
“Jean was a very eager student, soaking up everything that we provided at the Academy with acuity, energy, and enthusiasm. She was always open to new approaches in composition. She did very interesting things in her etchings and lithographs with borders, with combinations of printmaking and watercolor, and with newer processes, such as blind embossment (an inkless raised image), viscosity printing (utilizing an oil-in-water emulsion), collagraphy (incorporating textural materials and objects on a cardboard printing plate, sealed with polymer medium), and aquatint (a line drawing etched into a metal plate, sprinkled with an acid-resist rosin powder dipped and stopped in an acid bath)."
“As a painter, Jean worked in a greater scale than most students, with well-resolved compositions often featuring enormous flowers – tulips, daylilies, poppies, and trillium, for example. Her work was intense. The process I taught utilized layer upon layer of paint, and she adapted this approach beautifully to her own objectives. Her watercolors may have taken anywhere from twenty to fifty hours to paint—they were not quick studies but rather fully realized compositions."
“When I think of Jean’s paintings, I think of wonderful pinks and reds, often countered with rich thalo mixes — she loved saturated, intense colors...”