Kalamazoo artist Jeanne Fields' paintings, featuring contrasts between light and beautiful and dark and graphic, are being exhibited at the Westin Gallery in the Epic Center throughout February.

The painting subjects include flowers and children playing, but other works are grim, including two of the largest paintings. One depicts an Afghanistan woman clutching her bloodied little grandson; the other shows a mother and infant, both desperately hungry, in Darfur.

“I purposely made a dichotomy in this show,” Fields said. “I want viewers to feel compassion when they look at the bad and feel hope when they see good.”

Fields titled her exhibit “Dare to Be Aware: Our World Needs You.” It opened on Feb. 3 at the Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

This show looks at the problems confronting our world,” Fields said. “I believe that looking through the lens of art helps us see differently. We connect with the people, the creatures, and the environment that both challenge us and that we care about. It can be a place where we put politics aside and put humanity upfront. My paintings and assemblage sculptures signal compassion and hope–two qualities needed to face our future.

Jeanne Field's "Hunger in Darfur" demonstrates the suffering due to famine.“At first glance, you might wonder, is it political? In my view, it isn’t. I’m more and more convinced that we need to separate our response to problems from politics,” Fields said. “This show is about love. Love for humanity that doesn’t want to see it hurting. Love for the children so we make a better world for them. So much love for our planet that we want to clean it up, grow healthy, see the creatures thrive. You can add your own concerns for humanity and where it is headed and then decide how to help. Let’s separate all this from politics and taking sides. There’s a large group of people out there whose collective thinking isn’t divided, though their politics might be. I hope the overall effect is to feel compassion and be motivated.”

Jeanne Field's piece, "Just Off the Road"Fields continued, “A few of the paintings tear at the heartstrings; they put a face on hunger and the effects of war. When I made them it was very emotional to paint. 

“One of my sculptures is a wire human figure stuffed with all kinds of trash I picked up from about a three-quarter-mile stretch of Lake Michigan beach just south of Warren Dunes State Park. It’s revolting; we can do better than that!

“We must love enough to pick a cause and contribute to its solution. Ask yourself what you are really concerned about--just you speaking the truth to yourself. Then do something big or a little– towards that cause,” Fields said.

Jeanne Fields' painting, "Anguish in Afghanistan"“Governments are not going to solve our problems, though we hope they help ‘we the people.’ One yard at a time, or cleanup at a nature preserve, or switching from large, laundry-soap, plastic containers to the new soap-saturated paper option. It might seem small but if a tipping-point number of people make the switch, there would be a difference.”

Fields divides her work time between a studio in her home and one at the Ninth Wave Studio building, 213 W. Walnut St., near downtown Kalamazoo. “I use oil and acrylic paint. I’ve even used latex house paint – sometimes dribbling paint, casting it, and creating drops. I sometimes add tiny fossils, glass, glitter, and more. In sculpture, I’ve worked quite a bit with wire and carved wood. There is a variety of methods in the work presented in this show.”

Jeanne Fields' piece, "Water's Signature: Lilies if Clean, Algae if Not:" Fields grew up in Danville, Illinois. She attended Michigan State University, getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Art Education. She took enough music courses that she was able to teach music for two years at elementary level in the Grand Rapids Public Schools. She also played violin in the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra.

Fields then earned a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. After 10 years as a school social worker, she changed jobs again. Serendipitously she became the marketing officer of a small Chicago company that did decorative concrete work. The work involved adding colors to wet concrete and imprinting it with patterns and textures—all activities that Fields often participated in. This renewed her interest in serious painting and she has been at it for more than 25 years.

Jeanne Fields' painting, "Give Yourself Earth's Gifts."“In college, I took art courses that were required for my art education degree, but all my elective courses were about sculpture,” she said. “I made bronzes from wax figures and did wood carvings. Painting came later in life.”

In addition to her shows, Fields has contributed to a national project called “Faces Not Forgotten: Gun violence prevention through awareness and art.” The first step is for an artist to create a portrait of a gun victim no older than 20. A photographic copy is made and put into a traveling exhibit. Hundreds of artists have contributed since the project began in 2012 and the program has been honored with awards.

Each portrait is given to the family of the victim. Fields’ painting went to the parents of Blair Holt in Chicago. Blair was 16 and an honor student when he was fatally shot on a city bus. A gang member boarded and shot at another youth. Blair leaned over in his seat to shield a young woman. He was wounded and three days later he died.

Fields made a copy of her portrait and embellished it with a halo of handguns around the boy’s head. It’s in this exhibit. “It’s an honor to volunteer and paint a portrait to give to the family,” she said. “But to know that the portrait of every face continues as a record is deeply meaningful.”

Her exhibit at the Epic Center continues until the end of this month and runs Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The show is sponsored by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Fields has another exhibit scheduled later this year. It will be at the Richland Community Library from Oct. 15, 2023 through Jan. 15, 2024.


Mike Wenninger





Mike Wenninger is Jeanne Fields’ partner. He is a retired newspaperman, having been a reporter and editor at six daily papers. His last job for 16 years was owner/editor of the weekly newspaper in a small town in the mountains of northwestern California.