Image Credits: (top image) Jennifer Anne Bennett, The Valley, 2023, acrylic and oil on canvas, 48" x 60", (lower image) Jeanne Dunn, Night Forest Singing (detail), 2023, acrylic on canvas, 72" x 192". Card designed by Jenny Armer, @Mesa College Art Gallery, 2025
SAN DIEGO MESA COLLEGE
Into the Woods: Resplendent - Paintings by Jennifer Anne Bennett & Jeanne Dunn
On View: March 24 – April 24, 2025
San Diego Mesa College,
Fine Arts Building Art Gallery, FA103
7250 Mesa College Dr. San Diego, CA, 92111
(Closest entrance is through Marlesta/Genesee.
)
Opening Reception:
Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 4 - 7 PM, FA103 (Free parking event nights ONLY in Lot 1, STAFF Parking.)
Artist Talk on Earth Day
Tuesday, April 22, 2025, 5 – 7 PM
Art Gallery - FA 103
FREE and OPEN to the public. (Free parking event nights ONLY in Lot 1, STAFF Parking.)
In celebration of Women’s History Month, we are highlighting distinct works by two artists, Jennifer Anne Bennett and Jeanne Dunn. In the gallery, their large-scale canvases envelop us with the omnipresent beauty of Nature. Bennett’s animated brushstrokes and sumptuous color-washes coax luminous landscapes into being. Inspired by the healing experience of Japanese "forest-baths" (shinrin-yoku), Dunn paints a sensual arboreal space using vibrant hues and quasi-representational forms.
Join us for the reception and meet the artists on Wednesday, March 26, 2025, from 4 – 7 PM. Step into this colorful array of landscapes, catch a glimpse of the dappling light dancing on the canopies of tall trees, and witness the dazzling beauty of the sun as it emerges or dissolves into the leaves. Through luscious paintings, Jennifer Anne Bennet invites us to experience the sublime and to ponder on our personal connection to Nature. Enter a space where wilderness surrounds you and where you'll find solace in its grounding powerful presence. Jeanne Dunn’s expansive vibrant works, strongly delineated by bold hues, celebrate the agency of trees. The series is grounded in an acknowledgment of their role mitigating climate change and maintaining a healthy balance in forest ecology. Dunn's arboreal giants sever as colorful bellwethers which ultimately, in their anthropomorphic form, lend a provocative look at how humans are intertwined with nature. “My bold colors and semi-realistic forms take their cue from the sensory immersion an individual experiences in a lush forest. Walking in the woods is healing to the mind and the body.” - Jeanne Dunn “I want to create a nurturing visual space where we can enter, explore, daydream, rendezvous with a lover or friend, enjoy music, or encounter the unexpected. Whether driving to it, hiking through it, or sleeping under it, there is something primal about the natural terrain, tall trees in a dense forest, or wildflowers in the countryside.” – Jennifer Anne Bennett. There will be an Artist Talk on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, 5 - 7 pm. The gallery will be closed for Spring Break (March 31- April 4).
Jennifer Anne Bennett grew up in Lemon Grove, California. She earned an AA from Grossmont College, a BA from San Diego State University, and an MFA in Painting from Bowling Green State University, Ohio. She enjoys learning about and from her students at Grossmont College, where she has been a Professor of Art since 2006. Jennifer is a painter and printmaker.
Jeanne Dunn has Master’s degree in Fine Art and Painting from San Diego State University (SDSU) and a Bachelor of Art in Art / Art Education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. After living in San Diego for thirty years and teaching art at SDSU, she relocated to Los Angeles in 2012. Dunn’s work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe and is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) and Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA), and private and corporate collections.
Gallery Hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, 12-5 PM, or by appointment.
Closed Weekends, Fridays, Holidays & Spring Break March 31 - April 4.
Gallery is by Student Services building. During regular gallery hours pay for parking in Lot 1. Fine Arts Building is located by the Marlesta/Genessee entrance to the campus.
For additional information, visit our San Diego Mesa College Gallery website. or call (619) 388-2829 during business hours. Gallery Director, Alessandra Moctezuma amoctezu@sdccd.edu