Raven 2020

James Jean made this painting called "Raven," and it feels like a portal into a dream. Look at how the colors slide from those soft yellows and greens into pops of red, like hidden alarms, but also so sweet. The artist layers images of animals in a quirky, mystical way and I wonder if they are thinking about transformation and the spaces in between things? There are many details and they give off a sense of being meticulously planned, and then disrupted by something new. I imagine Jean working on this, adding a little bit of this and that. Each layer building up the story, the raven in flight, the girl in disguise, and the animals lurking. You can sense the artist’s hand in every decision, changing their mind as they go. Like they're not just painting what they see, but what they feel. It is like the best paintings, it shows us that artists are always in conversation with one another, picking up ideas and seeing where they lead.