Jay Defeo “The Jewel” circa 1959

"Over the years, I have worked either from the subjective world of my imagination, finding the image through my response to and manipulation of the materials I work with, or worked from the objective world of reality, discovering the image among the relationship of forms in common objects that I use for models. The process becomes a play between my control over the materials and an open and permissive attitude toward technique, allowing it to mold the image as it will. Hopefully, even the most literal works transcend the definition of objects from which they are derived. I enjoy the paradox of developing something quite organic while using inorganic models."
-Defeo

Jay Defeo is my favorite artist. She has the most passion I have ever seen in an artist. I enjoy her works mostly because she reminds me of my own art work, and my attitudes towards it. She isn’t very well known, but her work is very famous. She is probably one of the artists that her work is more famous than she is. Her work is very important.
Passion is something that people have; different passions for different things. If you are passionate about what you do, you will always be happy. Jay is an artist with the passion of greatness. This painting “The Jewel” is a starting painting to inspire her future masterpiece. In order to have her masterpiece into the world, she had to get the Jewel out of her.
Defeo’s style is unconventional out of the ordinary. She uses everything; nothing is un-usable for art to her. She took photos of her own false teeth in her later years, and they are on display at a very famous museum. She had a collection of erasers which she made into a sculpture. Her eccentricities in her art made her art so important. They are important because she was one of the first to use everything. Collage was something she did as well, and once again she used everything. The Jewel is painted with oil paint and plaster. Just like Johns, she also uses objects and mediums to create a three-dimensional element to her work. The impact to the world with this piece is that it helped her design and create her masterpiece “The Rose.”