SEA BREEZE ART GALLERY & STUDIOS | RESIDENT ARTISTS

Jeanne LaRocco Artist Statement My work is about the process of assembling objects to tell a story; a visual metaphor.  It may begin with an object, such as an old shoe or a piece of rusted metal.  Or it may be a photograph, song lyric, fragment of poetry, or remembered myth that starts the ideas flowing.  The working process is intuitive. As I work I sift through my collections, selecting objects and combining them with paint and images often working quickly on three or four pieces at the same time.   Objects come from secondhand stores, garage sales, local beaches, junkyards, and road sides.  When gathering these things I respond to shape, texture, and use. The materials I choose beckon me long before I know how I will use them.  It may take months, even years, before collected debris and found objects find their way into a piece.    Heavily influenced by a Catholic upbringing and comparative religious studies, the assemblages have a spiritual context and I think of them as shrines. I started working with shoes after discovering an amazing pair of rhinestone-studded Italian loafers at a local thrift store. The ‘Lost Soles’ have evolved into a series of shrines and saints.  I often incorporate mirror, colored glass, and resin to both reflect and obscure details in my work.  I want to invite the viewer in to seek out the hidden layers within the piece; to look into the glass and around the corner; to see a bit of them selves in the mirror. Biography As a child, Jeanne LaRocco was told that she didn’t have an artistic bone in her body.  She never dreamed of becoming an artist.  Instead, she channeled her creative energy into reading and became an avid student of mythology and storytelling. Years later she would study literature and comparative religion in college. Jeanne loves visual storytelling.  As a teenager, she would often travel to New York to spend hours at the museums and galleries viewing works by Magritte, Rauschenberg, and Cornell.  While living in the Atlanta in the early 90’s, she became enthralled by the work of Southern self-taught outsider artists who worked with recycled and repurposed materials.  Her first assemblage, a box construction, was created in 1995 as a gift for a friend.  She continued to make box ‘shrines’ for friends and family until taking her first art class through Santa Barbara City College, followed by course work at Ventura College.  Since 2004, Jeanne has been showing her work in juried shows in Ventura, Ojai, and Santa Paula.  A member of the Ventura Artists Union, Jeanne joined Sea Breeze as resident artist in September of 2006.  History | Resident Artists    Contact Sea Breeze Art Gallery for more information.