About Jeanne-Marie

Hello, my name is Jeanne-Marie Derrick. I was born and raised in New Jersey and presently live between Pennsylvania (Abramsville) and North Carolina. I also lived in New York City and the Caribbean, where I painted and ran an art studio/gallery. There, I showed my work at the Savannah Gallery and continue to show at the Lynne Bernbaum Gallery in Anguilla B.W.I.

If someone were to ask me when I was as young as three, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would have answered “an artist”. If the same question were presented when I was a teenager, same answer. I got a scholarship to the Art Students League, and I realized that there was an essential component missing in my makeup, I didn’t have the artistic ego needed to survive the art world. That didn’t stop me from making art, I just payed bills from an alternate career. But, I always knew I came into this life with the goal of making art and I plan on seeing that vision through to the end.

So many artist are inspirations - from Eva Hess to Alexander Calder - too many to list. But, the motivation to make art has always come from the connection I feel to life itself. When I’m making art, I feel purpose. I like myself. I like living. I find insignificant things fascinating. I enjoy looking, seeing and transforming. Taking materials and making them into something one would never have thought of. Art is a mystery in that way. One person makes something so bedazzling that it changes another's perception and worth. Art is valuable for this reason alone.

I paint in oils, acrylics, inks and watercolors. I sculpt in clay, wood, plastic and found objects. I recycle, I transform things from nature and from the garbage into art. Nothing is not an art supply. No theme, subject or message is not worthy of expression. If an idea moves you to wonder, it has potential. I have made large mural sized oil paintings expressing the beauty of nature to small carry away sculptures of the destruction of our planet. My current chosen materials for sculptures are bark, plastic drum wrap, acetate, paper and plastic globes, glass beads, the list goes on. Lately I’ve been oil painting on canvas and drawing with ink on plastic, sculpting in multiple mediums and creating vignettes that surprise and delight.

Someone once said to me that art is for the youth who have the energy to make it. I did not agree with her then and I agree even less now. I feel experience, age and wisdom imbues my work and makes it interesting. There are wonderful young artist, but an artist capable of sharing knowledge and history offers a depth to our existence and an understanding of distinction.