
Untitled (Covergirl)
Jean LaMarr
- 1989
- Offset Lithograph
- Image/sheet: 21.5" x 30"
- 96 prints in this edition
About the Print
About the Artist
Native American artist and activist Jean LaMarr was born in Susanville, California. She is a member of the Paiute and Pit River Tribes and is most known for her murals, prints, dioramas, sculptures, and interactive installations and has been featured in various museums and towns. LaMarr studied at San Jose City, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Kala Institute.
She was inspired by California’s Chicano mural and printmaking movement and embraced printmaking as a vehicle for political art. In 1986, LaMarr founded the Native American Graphic Workshop. Her 1989 Cover Girl series utilized printmaking to reclaim images of American Indian women.
She taught at the College of Marin, San Francisco State University, the California College of Arts and Crafts, Lassen Community College, California Correctional Center, and the Institute of American Indian Art. She lives and works in Susanville, California. A retrospective of her art opened at the Nevada Art Museum in 2019.
Curriculum Connections
Suggested Topics for Portraiture (in studio art and art history education), Visual Narratives, and Expressive Writing
Portraiture (in studio art and art history education), Visual Narratives, Expressive Writing:
The use of words or a combination of words, symbols, and human images to convey deeply felt emotions.
Questions to Consider
Creative people — artists, musicians, dancers, and writers — often create new works bearing witness to the death of a loved one, especially when it is a tragic death or the result of a catastrophic event like an environmental or health disaster such as COVID-19.
- Art memorials take many forms, including paintings, prints, and sculpture. Have you ever created one?
- What do you feel is the best way to represent some- one who has died?
- What metaphors can be used in art to represent someone’s death or dying?
- What symbols or elements of art reflect the passing of a human spirit and have personal meaning for you?
- If you were to create a composition from words (see Edgar Heap of Birds and Ayanah Moor), what nouns, adjectives, and adverbs would you use to convey your emotions?