In Jean’s artwork, the function of familiar portable objects like money or dice is altered and rigged to help refocus our use of small, common materials to make big, consequential decisions.  Buy that house — flip a coin.  Marry that person — throw the dice.  Jean often incorporates amulets and gestures that evoke our never-ending hope for good fortune, even while we are all cheating or bluffing.

Jean’s recent work combines metal with found textiles.  Rust dyeing on used damask is a focus:  rust highlights ambiguous patterns of dirt and decay.  Enamel buttons, like dice and money in her earlier work, is a focus:  small, humble, essential, easily hidden, personal, easily overlooked, and with historical references to valuables carried by refugees during migration.

Jean’s studio is full of materials, forms, and juxtapositions that allow her to ask questions and make art that is responsive to our collective fear and loss during uncertain times.  Handkerchiefs, napkins, and buttons are objects with both cultural and aesthetic purpose.  The layering of rust-dyed textiles and newly enameled buttons provide a unique combination of impermanence and permanence in her search for visual metaphors for sorrow.