Jean-bon

Hélène Jean (aka Jean-bon), a French illustrator based in Liege, only has one aim when she creates images: to make people laugh or to make them uneasy. Well, that’s two goals. Screen printing, distorted old photographs, embroidery, micropublishing, illustrations and paintings using various techniques (Indian ink, grey pencils, acrylic, promarkers, coloured pencils, sometimes even a mix of everything).. almost anything goes. For several years, the artist based a major part of her work around pop culture. Since then, she’s taken a step back, but continues to slip in a strong reference or two here and there in the images that she creates. Characters are a major part of Hélène Jean-Bon’s work. She names them to make them her own, to allow them to take shape and tell their own story, almost without her having any say in the matter.