Artist Biography
Jean Davis is an award-winning artist based in California's San Francisco Bay Area. She grew up in various locations such as Alaska, Thailand, and places both on and off the contiguous US. The experiences of adapting to new environments and other cultures helped to develop her sense of aesthetics and altered her perspectives.
Having drawn most of her life, she began oil painting as an adult and now focuses on painting and mixed media works. Her earlier paintings and drawings were focused on the figure and realism. She added abstraction to her style because it provided her a richer means of visual expression.
She holds an MFA (Painting) and a BSEL. Many of her paintings balance expressionism with realism in varying degrees as an exploration of subconscious thoughts and emotions, and of how they can unintentionally present themselves in painted imagery.
Having drawn most of her life, she began oil painting as an adult and now focuses on painting and mixed media works. Her earlier paintings and drawings were focused on the figure and realism. She added abstraction to her style because it provided her a richer means of visual expression.
She holds an MFA (Painting) and a BSEL. Many of her paintings balance expressionism with realism in varying degrees as an exploration of subconscious thoughts and emotions, and of how they can unintentionally present themselves in painted imagery.
Artist Statement
My work is informed by my environment and the foundation of knowledge and experience I've acquired through education and simply put, life. I use my art to express some of the thoughts and emotions that may not be obvious to me, may be guarded. By painting the figure in abstraction or by beginning and finishing with purely abstract marks I try to allow some of the resultant emotions or thoughts to show.
Transformation series
Situations, circumstances, and developments in life can deconstruct personal beliefs and perceptions of identity and reality. This series was painted while I was experiencing the aftermath of a serious loss. I see the creative process at the time as having been a part of the grieving process itself. Grief isn't a simple emotion; it encompasses much more than feelings. I saw pure abstraction as a means to express what I either couldn't adequately identify or didn't know I was processing.
Emergence series
After a transformation came an emergence, the next natural phase, the result of a metamorphosis. On the surface of it, every painting is an emergence. My Emergence series was based on concepts of Emergence Theory, which has applications to systems ranging from economic to sociological, to biological, where the outcomes of actions are only predictable to a certain point. Beyond that, given the necessary conditions, a new pattern emerges that seems to have been previously unpredictable. The new pattern shows more order and organization than the preceding chaos would have indicated.
These paintings began with the intention of creating work in a series without having a specific end result in mind. Rather, they were determined by the pattern established during the process of the work itself, with the outcome formed by the comprising pieces. The work became an exploration or observation of the process of reassembling the pieces of self as part of the healing process.
Transformation series
Situations, circumstances, and developments in life can deconstruct personal beliefs and perceptions of identity and reality. This series was painted while I was experiencing the aftermath of a serious loss. I see the creative process at the time as having been a part of the grieving process itself. Grief isn't a simple emotion; it encompasses much more than feelings. I saw pure abstraction as a means to express what I either couldn't adequately identify or didn't know I was processing.
Emergence series
After a transformation came an emergence, the next natural phase, the result of a metamorphosis. On the surface of it, every painting is an emergence. My Emergence series was based on concepts of Emergence Theory, which has applications to systems ranging from economic to sociological, to biological, where the outcomes of actions are only predictable to a certain point. Beyond that, given the necessary conditions, a new pattern emerges that seems to have been previously unpredictable. The new pattern shows more order and organization than the preceding chaos would have indicated.
These paintings began with the intention of creating work in a series without having a specific end result in mind. Rather, they were determined by the pattern established during the process of the work itself, with the outcome formed by the comprising pieces. The work became an exploration or observation of the process of reassembling the pieces of self as part of the healing process.