Creating Chocolate Masterpieces By Jean L. Zaun

Jean has been painting seriously for the last twenty years, having solo exhibitions regionally and nationally approximately every two years. After laboring as a candy coater in the family chocolate business for 22 years (her day job), Jean has moved on to now paint and sculpt full time in oils, pastels, and yes chocolate. Jean's first love, however, is painting with oil on panel or canvas. Her subject matter embraces the entire genre with the common thread being her passion for color while stimulating the affect on the emotions. Her paintings, while realistic, are not only visual diaries of the subject matter which is the initial concept, but are really about the more universal moods and emotions that we all share. Jean has received first place and best of show awards in regional and national juried shows for her oil painting and pastels. Most recently she received national recognition for her more unconventional creative pieces: chocolate paintings and sculptures.
Initially, Jean's exploration of chocolate as a creative medium was a way to assuage the tedium of her day job as a confectioner hand dipping exquisite chocolates at her family's third generation candy store located in the heart of downtown, Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Jean remarks in her creative evolution "…self-preservation as a visual artist, I was literally 'stuck' in a puddle of chocolate eight hours a day." Jean progressed into further exploration of chocolate as an art medium. Subsequently, Jean's creative journey caught the curious eye of the Toledo Museum of Art. Who upon reviewing the fresh artistic medium commissioned thirty-seven chocolate paintings to enhance the museum's Van Gogh "Fields" exhibit, culminating in March, 2003. The museum presented Jean as their guest artist wherein she created works of chocolate art live during the Van Gogh birthday party, which was held for the public inside the museum.