On Location: Jett Jackson: Stuck in Wonderland (by Henry T. Gage Middle School, Huntington Park, CA)

Описание: Jett Jackson: Stuck in Wonderland is about an eccentric artist who lives at the Santa Fe Arts Colony, located near Downtown Los Angeles. Students were given the chance to talk with Jett Jackson, a local artist, and carted a short documentary about her work as one of the most unique artists of our times. In the documentary, she describes her painting style and her inspirations as a painter.

“Raised by wolves and educated by circus nuns”, Jett Jackson paints with a rousing mix of humor, romance and “cartoony realism” to create an inspired world of characters and places like no other. With little formal training, Jett Jackson’s paintings speak to all art lovers of any age.

Jett’s exploration of painting takes on several characteristics of portraiture, illustration and the surrealism movement. As a form of visual art, her juxtaposition of life through the absurd eye typically starts with a sketch and ends with a pigment-rich oil painting that draws her viewers’ curiosity and makes them yearn for more.

Huntington Park, California, or “HP” as it’s known locally, is a residential community at the southeast edge of Los Angeles, named for railroad magnate Henry Huntington in 1906. The city has seen major demographic shifts through the years and is now a major shopping destination for the area. HP’s main thoroughfare and cultural hear, Pacific Boulevard, hosts large scale parades and festivals year-round for residents and visitors. Several “Art Alley” art competition events every year and the nearby Santa Fe Art Colony drive HP’s burgeoning art scene.

From 2008-2010, nineteen schools from across the United States created videos as part of the On Location program. A "media studio on wheels" visited each school for two weeks and provided students the gear and training to tell the story of the arts in their community.

From go-go music in Washington DC, to gullah woodburning in Beaufort, South Carolina, to modern dance in Berkley, Michigan, the arts of a community can be as different as it's geography.

The Kennedy Center traveled the country to help students tell the story of the arts in their community, and the result is a video collection reflecting a rich diversity of local artists and art forms across the United States.

The videos in this series were scripted, produced and edited by students using professional equipment, under the supervision of Kennedy Center teaching artists.