Jean Bundy

Biography/Artist Statement

As a painter/writer my work must have narration, employing the socio-political, quirky, and overlooked. I’m drawn to painting objects, which I combine with organic vegetation. Inspiration to paint/write the climate began when I moved to Alaska in the early 70s. Portage Glacier, sixty miles from Anchorage, could be touched by people walking on the beach. Boats now take visitors on an excursion of three mile Portage Lake to view a smaller glacier.

I have shown paintings in group and solo formats from Barrow, Alaska to New England, with 20 years at Chelsea, NYC galleries. My last solo show at Pictor Gallery NYC, March 2023 was entitled: Painting out of Writing--Just A Little Bit Quirky. Three paintings will appear virtually for a pop-up show at the David Du Puy Gallery NYC (4/25/25).

I’ve presented papers at College Art Association, and AICA-International Congresses: Chile/Argentina, S. Korea (virtual), Poland, Romania, Taiwan and Turkey (virtual). I am creator and editor of the online publication AICA-E-MAG presenting essays by novice and seasoned writers, relevant to the ever-evolving socio-political and climate-changing world. I review art books for press.princeton.edu for the AICA/E-MAG. I’m chair of AICA-International’s Incentive Prize for Art Critics too.

Backstory: At Beaver Country Day School (Massachusetts) in the 60s, I painted from sketches created during summers on Martha’s Vineyard. I also began to write art criticism. I spent one year at the Tobe-Coburn School for Fashion Careers NYC, before I followed my boyfriend/husband (David) to Anchorage. While raising five children and assisting with their art projects, I learned woodworking, helping David remodel/build several mountain cabins we inhabited, which included building furniture.

I returned to college and obtained a BFA in the late 90s from the University of Alaska, Anchorage. My paintings and thesis were about the whaling trade, emphasizing the industries that developed from the massive slaughtering of mammals off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, where I have resided. In 2002, I received an MFA from the University of Chicago painting women and household objects. I was also encouraged to become a writer. In 2007, I received an MFAW in writing, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, also continuing to paint figures and objects. In 2016, I received a PhD from The Institute of Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, writing a thesis: Survival and Change in the Paintings of Winston S. Churchill.

Misc.art adventures: For twenty years, I’ve been an art critic for Alaska Magazines: Alaska Bar Association, Alaska Native Quarterly, and Anchorage Press, Senior Voice, Townsquare 49.org.reporting on conferences in Alaska and Scandinavia, which focused on climate change and the indigenous. From 1998-2009, I served on the board of The Anchorage School District’s Art Curriculum Committee. I had teaching assistant positions at UChicago and was on critique panels at SAIC. I was a west coast ambassador for The Portrait Society of America. I’ve attended art residencies in the US and Europe.