37
thePeorian.com
A
few years ago, a good
friend of Jeanna Fearon
was struggling with
personal issues.
“
She needed time to get away,
even for an afternoon. And she
needed to laugh. So we took a
day off and… well, we laughed.
A lot. That was the inspiration
for this,” Fearon said of what has
become one of her favorite works
of art.
It is simple, really. It’s a paint-
ing Fearon did after that day
that depicts a pair of margaritas,
their lime coloring standing out
against a dark backdrop. She calls
it “Girlfriend Day.”
For Fearon, the most meaning-
ful part of the painting is what it
symbolizes. For this professional
artist whose day job is that of an
art therapist — perhaps the only
art therapist currently practicing
in Peoria — that is priceless.
“
Art is very personal. Picasso
once said that every painting is a
self-portrait. I totally agree with
that. It doesn’t matter what it is,
it says something about you or
about a moment in your life. My
art is about my moments,” she
said.
Being able to be there for her
friend, to help her through a
tough time, became one her most
important moments. That’s why
“
Girlfriend Day” means so much
to her and why she displays it in
her home studio and at art fairs.
Most of Fearon’s art is fun;
at least that which is seen by
the public. Her moments aren’t
always fun, she admitted. But
artwork she does as therapy from
those darker or sadder moments
go into a journal and remain
personal. “I do use art for my
own expression, for the sad, the
hurt. But the art the public sees
is fun stuff. I believe that art, the
fun stuff, can be healing. It is for
me when I do it and it can be for
others when they see it if it makes
them laugh or smile,” she said.
You can find Mr. Potato Head
in much of Fearon’s art, perhaps
wearing a Chicago Cubs or St.
Louis Cardinals uniform. It was
at a Cubs game several years ago
that she got the inspiration, she
said. She is a Cubs fan so appar-
ently not all her painful art goes
into her personal journal.
Neither did her recent painting
of Mr. Potato Head in a Cardinals
uniform holding a World Series
trophy. “Now that one was pain-
ful to do,” she said, with a laugh.
And she has sold at least a few
prints of that one so it has been a
little lucrative. “I do have a few
friends who are Cardinals fans,”
she said.
Another fun thing Fearon uses
as art objects are mermaids, a
lifetime fascination for her. “I
struggled for years to try to paint
mermaids and just couldn’t seem
to get it right. Now, interestingly,
I do it well enough I was commis-
sioned to do several of them for
Senara Spa (in Peoria). I’m very
proud of that,” she said.
It was her biggest commission-
ing yet and certainly not bad for
an artist who has been showing
her work in public for only three
years. And for one who repeated
an art class at Lakeview Mu-
seum more than once before the
instructor finally declared she’d
had a break through moment.
“
He’d told me I didn’t have it, but
I kept going. I kept trying. Finally
I had my break through. I haven’t
stopped and I am still learning
and, I think, getting better,” she
said.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 38
FOR JEANNA FEARON, ART IS THERAPY
Paul Gordon
Jeanna Fearon of Peoria, an artist as well as certified art therapist, stands in front of a wall at her therapy office
at Mindock Counseling and Consulting, 2000 W. Pioneer Parkway, on which she painted a duplicate of Vincent Van
Gogh’s famous “Starry Night.”
