Paintings
Jeanne Mitchell started creating playful mixed-media pieces over ten years ago but kept most of them in her closet. Cutting things with scissors, painting with large tools like spatulas and palette knives, and using simple implements like white glue and Sharpies, Jeanne was creating pieces based on the turn of a phrase, or a particularly compelling group of things that don’t really go together at first glance. Originally from the Midwest, Jeanne has been living, working and raising a family around the Boulder, Colorado area since 1998.
One of my favorite styles of painting is called “en plein air,” or outdoor painting. I love the challenge of capturing the light and the clouds as they shift from hour to hour. I return to this style of painting again and again, and sometimes add mixed media collage.
My current work is named after “Zoonotic Spillover,” better known as the transmission of a pathogen from a vertebrate animal to a human.(1) This phrase captured my imagination and emerged from my dreams. Inspired by the idea of a literal animal spillover—animals cascading over a waterfall—the series began to take shape. The work is comprised of acrylic paintings with mixed media. Textured and layered, the paintings combine playful hand-cut vintage animal imagery and mysterious imaginary natural settings. A direct product of quarantine energy—Zoonotic Spillover makes whimsical and sinister observations around the absurd and complex personal and societal issues arising from life during Covid-19.
(1) “Zoonotic spillover, which is the transmission of a pathogen from a vertebrate animal to a human, presents a global public health burden but is a poorly understood phenomenon. Zoonotic spillover requires several factors to align, including the ecological, epidemiological and behavioural determinants of pathogen exposure...,” “Pathways to zoonotic spillover,” by Plowright, Parrish, McCallum, Hudson, Ko, Graham, Lloyd-Smith, Nature Reviews Microbiology. 2017; 15(8): 502–510.
Please inquire about pricing. Frames and prints available for most pieces. Click on images to enlarge.
