Subplots | Jessica Dunne

Artist reception: October 18, 3-5pm

~No RSVP necessary~

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Evolution of Place: San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District

I live and paint in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset District, where the city dead-ends at the Pacific Ocean. The architecture of the low houses is so similar as to suggest assembly-line production, and it is--or was-- foggy and cold almost year-round. I respond to my immediate surroundings in my work but, when I moved to the Outer Sunset in the 1980s, at first I saw nothing of aesthetic interest.

Finally, after years of looking and painting and watching the evolution of the neighborhood, my relationship to its grid of streets and avenues has deepened such that I find it beautiful.

I look back on my work and see an evolving story of changes in the Outer Sunset. I see the ubiquitous utility poles and network of cables as compositional elements, as well as a tangible web of connection between neighbors. The city planners are steadily upgrading infrastructure and burying power lines so the poles and wires are being cleared from the sky. Their absence is observable change--but what is the felt change?

When the streetlights went from mercury vapor lights to sodium vapor, my palette felt the change--from green light to orange—before I noticed it myself. Here are the new white LED lamps that will once again send me reaching for previously unused paint colors.

By painting what I see, I make discoveries. By paying attention to the details that record shifts in light, structures, and moods, I want to impart the sense of being located and included in a way that leaves an afterimage in the mind's eye.

About the Horse Drypoints

Icelandic horses have no natural predators, but they were bred in a subpolar region. The strongest survived.

Dogs have needy eyes; they’ve evolved to look needy. Even my tortoise looks at me with expectation. But when I looked into the eyes of an Icelandic horse, I saw self-sufficiency. All they were saying to me was “I’m here.”

About the Portraits

I’ve always drawn from life. The pandemic made Zoom drawing a necessity and I began making portraits instead of drawing whole figures. I could get in close and study the model’s face in a way not kosher were we in the same room. Here are some portraits I’ve made of Kenyatta over the last four years.

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Artist Bio

Jessica Dunne makes large urban landscape paintings and tiny intaglio prints. She received a Pollock-Drasner Foundation Grant, the James D. Phelan Art Award in Printmaking, and many artist-in-residency awards. She has had solo shows in museums and universities around the country, including the Frye Art Museum, the Flaten Art Museum, and the Fresno art Museum. The Oakland Museum of California, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Stanford Special Collections collect her work. She just finished a solo show at Santa Clara University.

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Gallery Commonweal is a 1,500-square-foot gallery with 30-foot ceilings, large north- and south-facing windows, and unique historic detail. For 25 years, we've featured arts that heal our bodies, minds, and souls. Our gallery is open from 10:00-4:00 pm Monday through Friday. We recommend that you call our main line at 415-868-0970 to make an appointment anyway, just to be sure the space is open (we sometimes use the gallery space for retreats and group meetings). For directions, read this document (PDF).

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