Jeanne Salis

Born in Philadelphia PA, the artist Jeanne Salis resides in the United States and in Mexico. She is best known for her colorful oil paintings that embrace life and nature through lyrical abstraction. Additional media include drawings, prints, photography, and textiles.

Salis’ early interests focused on writing poetry and descriptive slice-of-life stories. After receiving a BA and MA in English literature she explored the visual arts. Weaving on a friend’s handmade floor loom, she fell in love with textiles and studied the art form at Indiana University, Bloomington IN, receiving a M.S. in Art Education.

Salis pursued her professional career in Chicago IL, where she wove rugs and miniature tapestries, taught fiber arts at the Evanston Art Center for eight years and raised a family. While exploring the painterly quality of her textiles during the MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Salis immersed herself in the world of color and mark-making within painting and drawing. Completing the degree, she held artist-in-residencies in Chicago Public Schools through Urban Gateways, and taught painting, drawing and humanities at Moraine Valley Community College. Salis then dedicated herself to community work at the Chicago Children’s Museum until 2002, integrating art into the elementary school curriculum and developing programming and partnerships within Chicago’s various ethnic communities.

Salis continues to work in her studio. Besides exhibiting, she has taught classes integrating art with lectures on religion and mythology presented by a gestalt psychologist in addition to private classes in printmaking, textiles, painting, drawing and multicultural arts. As a photographer, Salis has documented various singers and musical groups and continues her personal photography practice. She also has translated from Spanish to English the poetry of Gabriela Mistral and a story for children by María Eva Áviles that speaks to sexual abuse, among other projects.

Salis’ work has been recognized with grants from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council, and residencies at Ragdale Foundation. She has exhibited in the U.S. and Mexico and is in private collections in both countries.