In this Flying Solo exhibition, Knoxville artist Jean Hess works with themes of loss. She references places she once lived and the past she experiences while living in an old country house. By using imagery from nature, she also calls attention to our society's loss of contact with the natural environment and to the lost illusion of innocence that our entire society is dealing with now. To underscore these themes, she combines drawings in pencil and ink with non-traditional art media, such as pressed leaves and flowers, old wallpaper, flakes of mica and copper. She suspends these materials in a liquid acrylic base that can be brushed over the surface of the canvas.

Hess grew up in Baltimore, MD, and has been painting since childhood. She attended Maryland Institute College of Art on a scholarship and earned both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. She remained in Colorado and Texas for many years before moving to Knoxville in the 1990s. Since returning east, Hess has played an active role in the regional art community, exhibiting and winning awards in juried competitions at the Museum of Arts, History and Science in Evansville, IN, the Huntsville Museum of Art in Alabama, the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN, as well as the New Visions Space in Atlanta, GA.

Arts at the Airport receives funding for the visual arts from the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) and the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC). Music performances are sponsored by MNAA, Delaware North Companies, Inc. and The Paradies Shops. The Flying Solo Exhibition Series is funded in part under an agreement with the TAC and the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information about Arts at the Airport, please call (615)275-1614 or visit www.artsattheairport.com.