A lilac-hued evening sky is reflected in the rippling surface of a pond, its bright orange inhabitants - koi fish - waiting for dinner to land on the deceptive water. Ringing the pond are conifers like sentinels, watching the comings and going of evening life.
Despite an educational focus on journalism and biology, an art class at the Mendocino Art Center in California changed the trajectory of Carol Jessen's career. She took a nine month course in color woodcut printmaking with Toshi Yoshida student Richard Steiner in Kyoto, Japan, in 1979, followed by further studies in the medium at the Miasa Cultural Center in 1982.
Interestingly, though her woodcuts are painterly, it wasn't until the mid 1990s that she would begin working in oil paint and pastels, which remain her preferred mediums. The arc of her artistic evolution began with one of the more difficult mediums, mastering the harsh and unwieldy woodblock with a soft deftness.