Sunday, May 12, 2013

Jean Wells


Jean Wells



            Jean Wells creates large-scale mosaic sculptures.  Often the subjects of these mosaics are colorful food items, such as candy, ice cream, and hot dogs.  To create these sculptures, Wells has colored glass custom made for her, and then she hand cuts each piece.  The tiny scrap fragments of glass are then used to fill in details.  The frameworks she uses to support the glass are found objects, or Wells carves armatures out of foam.  Jean Wells is often connected with Pop Art, for her six-foot-tall ice cream cones and sports cars made of glass mosaic.  Urban Fruit Tree is a particularly large sculpture in the shape of a tree which is adorned with mosaic sculptures similar to her larger iconic works. 

            Jean Wells’s art at first glance is beautiful to look at, but I like that she has a deeper meaning behind the sculptures of food.  She is interested in junk food and candy as a statement about body image, and this is reflected in her Beach Babes sculpture as well, which features larger women who are confident about their bodies wearing bathing suits.  I also like the fragmented figures that Wells has created, such as Mixed Messages, which have other objects mixed in with the glass medium.

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