Artist Jeanne K Simmons

While strolling the beach at Fort Worden Rachel and I came across what looked like an artist’s installation. A black canvas had been laid out over the sand. It was obviously covering some lumpy artifacts giving the whole thing an otherworldly landscape appearance. Next to the the canvas (soaking wet canvas) there was a bright pink child’s beach pail. But no child was present. Accidental art? Or intentional? I had a camera with me and took a couple of exposures. Spooky, eh?

 

Accidental Beach Installation by Jeanne K Simmons - Photo by Kevin Imper

We continued up the beach, looking for the pail’s owner, and expecting to find a child. Shortly we came across not a child, but a grown woman, diving gleefully into a huge pile of kelp with her bare hands. She was pulling apart and separating the tangle, and severing selected pieces of it with a large knife. Not your usual sight. Naturally we had to interrupt our walk to watch, and then to engage. Port Townsend artist Jeanne Simmons was the child we were hunting for. The canvas landscape I had photographed was a damp canvas laid out over her kelp harvest to keep it from drying out. The kelp was for a live installation to be photographed later in the afternoon. We didn’t get to see the photo-shoot but Jeanne did notify me when the results were uploaded to her website. 

Jeanne's finished installation is magical. Her model for the piece is another local art treasure, performance artist Katrina Wolfe.

https://www.maarts.org/theater

Katrina - by Jeanne K Simmons

For a satisfying feast of Jeanne’s visual imagination and description of her artistic philosophy please visit her webpage. Here is the link to her site:

 https://jeanneksimmons.com/

The Quimper Peninsula is rich with creative energy making it the perfect showcase for Jeanne’s vision of creation, growth, and nurturing. These female traits are expressed directly or implied in her visual creations. Some of her female figures are quietly overseeing their world, while Katrina is actively engaging it (Immersing herself). Jeanne’s natural world scenes show evidence of the female forces that shaped them. Though the installations may exist for only moments in our physical world, her vision lies indelible in her photographs. They are beautiful and strike deep!

Extensions - by Jeanne K Simmons

 

Extensions - by Jeanne K Simmons

@kevingimper