McEWAN, Jean

 

 

Jean McEwan (“fond of dogs and minty chocolates”) is a visual artist. She was born in Scotland, but now lives in the Haworth area.  She originally studied English Literature at degree level and worked in community and social work projects for over 10 years in Glasgow.

However, she was increasingly drawn to art and graduated in 2005 with a first class honours degree in fine art from Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU). Jean now works with a range of medium, applied in a transformative way; for example, in the production of altered postcards, photo-collages, zines (hand-made magazines), instant books, installations, and moving images.

 

 

Jean says of her work:

I use things I make, find and experience and make them into new things. I often think of these ‘new things’ as telling some kind of story. I use photography, text, video language and sound, depending on what feels right at the time. My sources are often a combination of autobiographical, fictional and found. I like playing with ideas of what’s real and what’s not real. Isn’t it all an illusion anyway? I’m drawn to ambiguity.

 

 

She has been actively involved in community projects both before and after her graduation from the LMU, most recently as the founder of the ‘WUR’ project in Oastler Market, Bradford, and involvement with the ‘Creative Citizenship’ project, and ‘Instant Book’ workshop, in Bradford during 2014-15. Jean was also funded (in 2015) by the Bradford based  ‘Two28’ organisation to facilitate a community arts project.

 

 

Jean has had a solo exhibition at South Square, Thornton, and her work has been shown in a wide range of group exhibitions in the UK, and in the USA, Sweden and Spain, including the ‘Useful Art?’ exhibition at the University of Bradford, in 2017.  Her work has also been featured in the ‘How Do’ and Owt’ publications.

 

Website: http://jeanmcewan.com/about/

You can also read Jean McEwan’s ‘My Art’ article at https://www.notjusthockney.info/mcewan-jean-my-art/