Jean W. McLaughlin

Upon retirement in 2018, McLaughlin returned to her studio practice after 45 years in nonprofit arts management. Her work focuses on printmaking (monoprints, woodcuts, and lithography) and is rooted in drawing and photography. I exhibited my work in the 1980-90s, culminating in a three-person show at the NC Museum of Art, but stopped producing work when I became director of Penland School of Craft. In April 2021, I had a one-person show at the Toe River Arts Gallery in Burnsville, and in the spring of 2022, I had a one-person show at the Cary Arts Center. 

I was director of Penland School of Craft for 20 years and in various program roles with the NC Arts Council for 16 years prior to Penland. I studied art at the CA College of the Arts, UNC Chapel Hill, Penland School of Craft and have a Masters in Liberal Studies from NC State University. My time also includes volunteering for nonprofit organizations-- I currently serve on boards for the Community Foundation of Western NC, the UNC School of the Arts, and Wildacres Retreat. 

Artist Statement

I have long been an observer of water in puddles, as rainfall, tumbling through creek beds, at the ocean’s edge, and splashing about as I swim. I am also a novice gardener among generations of Southern women who grew flowers. I spent a few years designing textiles and weaving which now has become subject matter for prints. Seeing the world is a passion which allows travel to also be a subject. Just lately, I have begun to explore an integration of language into my work and to allow family history to become a form of self-portrait.

All of the subjects vie for time and evolve into several types of printmaking--woodcuts, lithographs, and monoprints.