Jeanne McDermott
Writer, visual artist, teacher
Visual Art
Exhibitions:2026 Art & Healing, Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA2025 Artist Holiday Market, Roasted Granola Cafe, Arlington MA2025 26th Annual Roddy Competition, Concord Center for the Arts, Concord MA2024 Destination: Nature, FiveSparks Arts Collaborative, Harvard MA
Through painting and drawing, I search for what I feel but can not articulate.Often I begin with a photograph and turn it upside down. This disrupts my logical brain.I crash through my fixed idea of how things should be, lose my way and then, sometimes, find it again.
Writing
For me, learning is, deep down, a beautiful mystery.At 42, I discovered teaching, which was a roundabout realization of another childhood dream: I wanted to be an animal trainer in the circus. Picture that when you wonder what kind of person loves spending the day with middle schoolers."Small Wonder" is a book I created about my teaching experience:
About
I was born and raised in the Chicago area.At summer camp, I told my cabin that I had four brothers, adding our dogs to the overall sibling count. Books nourished my imagination. I entertained my family on long car drives out west by telling stories.
To no one’s surprise, I became a writer — of magazine articles and books.Science, medicine and engineering ignited my curiosity.At 42, I discovered teaching.After I retired, I tried to write about teaching and discovered that words utterly failed.So I started to doodle, and that led to taking classes and learning how to draw and paint. Something I had never explored as a child. It’s never too late.Through painting and drawing, I search for what I feel but can not articulate.I am grateful to live alongside my supportive extended family in the Boston area.This is where I feel at home.