Stories in My Pocket // Patrick Lundeen
An essay response to S.C. Jeans’ Stories in My Pocket
S.C. Jeans’ Stories in My Pocket, September 10-October 23, 2021, at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
S.C. Jean, who I have always known as Sandra Cook, has lived in Kelowna for about 25 years and is a beloved and cherished presence within the art and music scene. If you have attended any live music shows in Kelowna you most likely have seen her in the audience – frequently she can be found snapping pictures of the people in the band or of her friends, who she refers to as her “kids”. If not at a music venue, you would definitely run into her at an opening or volunteering here at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary. You may have seen her photos gracing the walls at Fernando’s Pub or in the back office at the gallery. Having your photo taken and placed on one of these walls is a coveted achievement and means that you are part of the “in” crowd. Though she is well-known and liked by many because of these activities I have primarily got to know Jean through her paintings.
“The subject of each painting was innocuous, perhaps a landscape or something similar, but they were executed in a way that could only be described as exuberant.”
I first became acquainted with Jean’s work a number of years ago when visiting the office of my friend and colleague Katherine Pickering up at the university. They struck me as being totally unique and were painted in a style that I had never seen before. The subject of each painting was innocuous, perhaps a landscape or something similar, but they were executed in a way that could only be described as exuberant. I remarked to Katherine that I liked them and she told me that she had purchased them from a local artist “Sandra Cook”, and promised to introduce me to her. Sometime later I was at the opening of the annual Alternator Red Dot show and sale and as usual, the walls were crammed from floor to ceiling with works of all varieties. As is the case with most of these fundraisers, all of the works seemed to blend together into one big monotone cacophony of colour and imagery – yet for some reason, every once in a while, there would be a painting that would jump out from among the multitude on the walls. I would walk up to these works and have a look at the label and each time the label would read ‘S.C. Jean’. I began scanning the room like someone searching for change at the beach with a metal detector; nothing, nothing, nothing, and then all of a sudden BEEP it would be another ‘S.C. Jean’ painting. I asked someone “Who is this S.C Jean?”, and they told me “Oh that’s Sandra Cook, she’s standing over there. Would you like to meet her?” I was pleasantly surprised to meet a mature woman with white-grey hair, not too tall, kind of quiet, and unassuming with an especially warm smile. I chatted with her for a while and told her how much I admired her paintings. She struck me as being quite modest and seemed genuinely appreciative of my compliments.
S.C. Jeans’ Stories in My Pocket, September 10-October 23, 2021, at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
About a year later, I was getting coffee at the Bean Scene and was treated to what was my first large grouping of S.C. Jean works. Generally, I am not a fan of looking at art in coffee shops, I tend to glance at the works casually as they recede into the background while I sip my coffee and contemplate other things. Yet these paintings commanded my attention! There was no need to read the tags, by this time I could smell a Sandra Cook painting from three blocks away. I was floored. I proceeded to get on the nerves of the other patrons as I walked from table to table pausing at every painting to take a deeper look.
I next met Jean in Walmart when I sprung out from between an aisle and gushed about how much I had enjoyed seeing her paintings down at the Bean Scene. She didn’t remember having met me at the Red Dot show but graciously handed me a business card and invited me to visit her studio. I put this in my wallet and kept it there until it disintegrated. I didn’t have the nerve to call her up. Fast forward to this past year, while at an Alternator board meeting I proposed the idea of inviting Jean to show her work in our main space. I was impressed to find that Dylan Ranney was also a big fan of Jean’s work and equally enthusiastic about putting together an exhibition by one of our favourite local artists.
“It is through co-organizing this exhibit that I finally had the pleasure of visiting Jean’s studio. Just like every other time that I have encountered her work this experience caught me off guard.”
It is through co-organizing this exhibit that I finally had the pleasure of visiting Jean’s studio. Just like every other time that I have encountered her work this experience caught me off guard. I have to confess that going into this project I was a little worried that there may not be enough unexhibited work to put together a sizable main space exhibition. I could not have been more wrong! The room that is supposed to be Jean’s studio is so jammed with paintings that it is rendered impossible to work in. This causes her work to spill into adjacent rooms where she has artwork covering literally every available wall space. The number of completed paintings conservatively run into the several hundred. Many of these canvases are wrapped in opaque paper, stacked in piles on the floor or stowed in bins. I flipped through them like records at a record store. Unlike the time at the gallery or coffee shop, where her singular works would jump out at me, I found myself struggling to take in each individual work. Needless to say, even though I have visited many times, I have still not viewed all of the work – and this is just the paintings! I would estimate that for every painting Jean has probably completed 3-4 drawings. The drawings are each distinct works of art (not preparatory sketches) and are equally as interesting and exciting as her paintings. I am not exaggerating to say that it would be a piece of cake to organize ten exhibitions of her work based on what she already has on hand, and all of these exhibitions would be as compelling as the one presented here.
Jean has told me that prior to 2013, when she was 63 years old, she had created precisely four paintings (and some drawings). She showed these to me – one was done in 1977, one in 1985 and the other two sometime in the ’90s. These are all successful works but are tighter and represent a mere hint of what was going to come later. Through the years prior to 2013, Jean worked at various jobs (as a caregiver, waitress, taxi driver), had kids, went back to school and was too busy to devote much time to painting. In 2013, after going through a rough patch in her personal life and a period of relative inactivity, a friend who she calls “Ziggy” took her to some music shows and drop-in art classes to try to cheer her up. This event seems to have been the catalyst that opened up the flood gates and set off a whirlwind of productivity. Jean’s prolific activity went on unabated for 7-8 years, slowing down a bit during the pandemic, only to pick up in a flurry again these past months in preparation for this exhibition.
S.C. Jeans’ Stories in My Pocket, September 10-October 23, 2021, at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
It is essential to the understanding of Jean’s work to acknowledge that she is a self-taught artist. This is to say, that she did not go to art school or university to study art, but instead picked it up independently and found her own way to create. Because of this, she has developed a unique language, and consequently, her work may not tick every box of what you expect to see from a “schooled” painter. Yet if you are willing to spend time with her paintings, you find that they stand on their own merits and offer a rewarding viewing experience. I would go on to say that it is precisely through this lack of training that she has developed a distinct voice that transcends many of the derivative works that have been spawned by the academy.
The function of studying art formally is to build skill with given materials and also to place one's work within contemporary and historical art discourses. When this works well, it allows the student to strengthen their art practice and hopefully gets them working in concert with past and of-the-moment cultural developments. Unfortunately, this process can also have a homogenizing effect that flattens out one’s original creative impulses and forces the student to submit to preconceived expectations. Students begin to make work that looks like “Art”, but in exchange have unknowingly sacrificed their true personal vision. Refreshingly, Jean has not been subjected to this, and her work remains raw and filled with her own idiosyncrasies. These works are also not the work of your typical “Sunday painter”, but rather have a visceral and expressive quality that is extraordinary, unique and affecting.
“…it is through her use of colour and brushwork that she is able to create a vibration that ripples – and sometimes crashes, clanks and clashes – across her canvases. These vibrations transmit emotions that are capable of communicating with and resonating within, the viewer’s mind.”
If I were to narrow down what makes Jean’s works so distinctive, it is through her use of colour and brushwork that she is able to create a vibration that ripples – and sometimes crashes, clanks and clashes – across her canvases. These vibrations transmit emotions that are capable of communicating with and resonating within, the viewer’s mind. I am not going to argue that all of these expressions are harmonious, balanced or pleasant, although they very often are, but rather they are complex and filled with the diverse feelings that we experience throughout our daily lives. I asked Jean if she creates these moods intentionally and she explained that she lets them happen unconsciously, thus allowing the paintings to take shape as she works. Simply put, this is her personality coming out through her brush. It is comparable to how someone’s psychic make-up can be probed through their handwriting – only in Jean’s case, this expression of personality is more interesting than it is in the average person. This is what we call natural talent!
The title of the show “Stories in My Pocket” could be interpreted in several ways. There are reoccurring motifs in Jean’s works. Some of these are expansive landscapes, various figures (many of which point to historical and romantic styled artworks from the 19th century such as Renoir and Monet), musical notes, distorted faces, nuns. All of these are suggestive of an elaborate fantasy world and are the result of an active interior life that seems to bubble forth from Jean’s imagination and onto her canvases. “Stories in My Pocket” could also reference past experiences; loves, family, friends or the trauma that one carries as they travel through life. Perhaps one could reach into one’s pocket and accidentally pull out a painful memory only to hurriedly push it back down – or more soothingly, revisit the same nourishing story, again and again, to help sustain them as they journey. When I look at S.C. Jean’s artwork I don’t tend to dig too deeply into what each painting means specifically, but rather I invent my own narrative and run with it while allowing the expressiveness of each painting to wash over me. I allow myself to be absorbed into her world for a time, comparing her stories to my own, and upon exiting I feel genuinely enriched as though someone has empathized and communicated with me. This is the function of good art! And when it works, it fortifies us and readies us to go about our lives and continue collecting stories of our own.
Patrick Lundeen is an artist, teacher and musician born in Lethbridge Alberta (Treaty 7) and currently based in Kelowna BC (Okanagan-Syilx territory) where he teaches drawing at The University of British Columbia (Okanagan Campus) and is a member of the board of directors at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. This past spring, he put out his fourth self-released album (on cassette) as The Oblique Mystic called “Religions of the Grandfather”. Lundeen has a forthcoming exhibition (2022) at the Kelowna Art Gallery and past exhibitions at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, L’Ecart, The Odd Gallery, Katherine Mulherin Projects, Confederation Centre and Wetterling Gallery. He has received research and creation grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and his work has been written about Canadian Art, Border Crossings, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Time Out Chicago and Flash Art.