Jeanne Simmons

Lives and works in Port Townsend, WA, USA

Artist statement

I am passionate about working in nature to address issues concerning humanity and the Earth. I am profoundly moved by the natural world, and I am fortunate to live close to beaches, forests, and fields that inspire and sustain me and also provide me with the raw materials required to make my work. My goal is to express, as beautifully and as compellingly as I can, the contents of my inner world and imagination, as well as my preoccupation with the relationship between humans and nature. With my work, I attempt to describe a connectedness between us and our environment that seems to have been all but forsaken. I hope to nurture this dynamic relationship, which is our birthright and obligation, and to perhaps even rekindle and reawaken a yearning for it in others. While doing this, I simultaneously satisfy my own need to embed myself in nature. Women, for me, express the feeling of connectedness to nature in a way that I find poetic. And, since my models are, in a sense, my surrogates (as I wish that I could braid myself to the ground and document myself in that state, but cannot), it only makes sense that they should be women. Issues that are of great and preoccupying concern to me include climate change, Black Lives Matter, intersectional feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, Indigenous Peoples' rights, patriarchy, and capitalism. I see an obvious correlation between the mistreatment of the earth and the mistreatment of marginalized human beings. Finally, I wish to humbly and...

Artwork