Jean Noon Biography
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Artist’s Statement
Artist's Statement Being an artist/sheep farmer has been a natural rhythm for me for several decades. The hours laboring on the farm and driving the tractor provide idea incubation time for the development of my pieces.
As a sculptor I build structures to contain and communicate ideas. Animal forms and physical gestures inspire most of my work. Pieces are composed of various materials including recycled sisal hay twine, sheep fence wire, rocks from the fields, plaster, gut, and wood from the forest.
In the spirit of Alexander Calder, I draw with wire. I enjoy taking wire lines for walks through space. I celebrate line, structure, shadow, humor, transparency and movement. I alternate between large, small, minimal, and complex forms. I am intrigued by the negative space within and around structure and the evolution of the forms through the process of assemblage. My interest in and appreciation of traditional and nontraditional basket weaving enhances the work. The quiet action of winding and weaving of the wire and twine around and around becomes both meditative and structural. Materials assert themselves and a piece often takes on its' own gestured direction. I toy with balance and mobility allowing some of the sculptures becoming animated when agitated by a breeze, a touch, or a bounce in the floor. Shadows amplify the sculpture.
"Drawing is the act of taking a line for a walk." —Paul Klee
b.1949 Cambridge Massachusetts
Wire Sculpture
Gallery History
1997-2010 Dorothy Rogers Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2002-2010 Judith Leighton Gallery, Blue Hill, Maine
2003-2010 45 Degrees, Kennebunkport, Maine
2008-2009 The Blue Marble Gallery, Waterville, Maine
2008 Farnsworth Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2003-2008 June LaCombe/SCULPTURE, Hawk Ridge Farm, Pownal, Maine
1996-2006 McGrath Dunham Gallery, Castine, Maine Exhibit History
2004-2010 Annual Shirley and Grant Jacks Sculpture Garden Invitational-U.N.E., Westbrook, Maine
2010 Maine Public Broadcasting Annual TV Auction
2008 Water and Gravity /June LaCombe Sculpture at Hawk Ridge Farm
2008 Seventh Annual Sculpture Garden Invitational – U.N.E., Westbrook, Maine
2008 Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 10th Annual Art Auction
2007 The Clown "Animals in Art" Portland, Maine
2007 Heartwood College of Art, Kennebunk, Maine. "Size Doesn't Matter"
2007 6th Annual S& G Jacks Sculpture Garden Invitational, U.N.E. Portland, ME
2007 Where Nature and Culture Meet- Sculpture at Maine Audubon June LaCombe
2007 Sculpture Participating with Place; Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, Me.
2007 Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 9th Annual Art Auction
2006 The Heartwood College of Art, Kennebunk, Maine. "Size", "Dog"- Pick of the Litter Award, "Boat"
2006 NYU Tisch ITP Spring Show, New York, N.Y.
2006 Inspired Hand III, Maine Craft Assn. Atrium Art Gallery USM/LA
2006 Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 9th Annual Art Auction
2005 Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, Maine "Expressions of the Heart" Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Boothbay, Maine
2005 The Heartwood College of Art, Kennebunk, Maine. "Boat" Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 8th Annual Art Auction
2004 Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 7th Annual Art Auction fafa, Exchange St. Portland, Maine
2003 Spring For Life; Annual Aids Benefit Auction Portland, Maine Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 6th Annual Art Auction
2003 "Hanging Together Again" Invitational, 7 Storer Street, Kennebunk, Maine
2002 Spring For Life; Annual Aids Benefit Auction Portland, Maine
2002 "Hanging Together Again" Invitational, 7 Storer Street, Kennebunk, Maine
2002 Maine Fabric and Fiber Arts Festival Exhibit Portland, ME
2002 Ocean Street Arts, South Portland, ME.
2002 "WOOD AND WIRE", Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts, Concord, Mass.
2002 Maine Artists at Maine Audubon 5th Annual Art Auction
2001 Union of Maine Visual Artists juried "Fish" show Blum Gallery, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME
2001 "Hanging Together" Invitational, 7 Storer Street, Kennebunk, Maine
2001 Maine Woman in the Arts, Prelude, Kennebunkport, Maine
2000 The Maine Artists Space, Portland, Maine
1999 The Maine Artists Space, Portland, Maine
1998 Galerie Lumiere, Savannah, Georgia and Tiverton Four Corners, R.I.
1998 The Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, Maine: Experiments in Creativity
1998 The Pittsburgh Public Theater, Pittsburgh, PA.
1998 The Area Gallery, USM, Portland, Maine
1998 Maine Coast Artists (Center for Maine Contemporary Art), 20th Annual Juried Exhibition, Rockport, Maine
1998 Celebration of the Arts, Juried Exhibition, Kennebunk, Maine
1998 Danforth Gallery, Portland, Maine
1998 South Shore Art Center, Cohasset, MA.
1997 York Institute Museum, Saco, Me. Maine Women in the Arts Spring Exhibit
1997 Galerie Lumiere, Savannah, Georgia
1997 Danforth Gallery, Portland, Maine
1997 Shard, Ogunquit, Maine
1997 The Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.
1997 ARTLINK, Fort Wayne, IN
1996 Lone Moose Art Gallery, "FISH" Bar Harbor, Maine
1996 Jewitt Gallery, University of Maine, Augusta, Maine
1996 USM Art Gallery, "SIX" Gorham, Maine
Education
2006 U.S.M. Advanced Sculpture with Duncan Hewitt
2007, 2005, 2003, 2001, 1998, 1995, 1993 Open Door Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
2000 U.S.M. Ceramics with David Schneider
1996 U.S.M. OBJ. & ENVIR: INTERDISIPLINARY APPROACH. Jin Soo Kim (Art Inst. of Chicago)
1993 Watercolor on Location, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine
1990 University of Southern Maine, B.S. Art Education, Summa Cum Laude
1971 Goddard College, B. A., Art/Education/Agriculture, Plainfield, Vermont Work History
1970-2010 Sculptor / Artist / Farmer
1970-2010 Owner/Operator of The Noon Family Sheep Farm- MOFGA Certified Organic 2009-2010 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Advisory Committee
2007-2010 SARE Grant Reviewer
2000-2009 Board member, former president of Three Rivers Land Trust, Acton, Maine
2010 Project Manager -Three Rivers Land Trust
2001-2009 Long-term Substitute in Art & general substitute Massabesic High School, Waterboro, ME
2003-2005 SARE Farmer Grants for research on Organic treatments for sheep
2002-2003 Adult Ed. Sanford "So You Think You Can't Draw?"
1990-2001 Art Teacher in Sanford, Saco, and Biddeford Maine