Jessica Halonen’s work will be on display in Blue Star, a contemporary museum

After several years of painting and sculpting across the globe, Jessica Halonen, an art professor, unveiled her newest collection, “The Blue Hour (a clock stopped)” on Thursday, Feb. 2 at a local San Antonio museum.

Q: What are the pieces in your new presentation about?

A: It investigates the historical intersection between art and science through the exploration of the pigment Prussian blue. This exhibition includes all new works that have not been previously exhibited. I began this project (the Blue Hour) in 2015 during a three month residency in Berlin. This is where I first learned about the accidental discovery of Prussian blue.

Q: How long did it take you to complete everything?

A: The planning of the works in this exhibition has been in process for over a year; the physical making of the individual works varied dramatically. The largest painting took me about eight months, while the sculpture was built on site in the gallery over the past two weeks. And although the cyanotype included in the show took only hours, I spent all of last summer experimenting with this alternative photographic process with the help of Sasha Faust, my Mellon summer research fellow. Sasha will be showing a series of cyanotypes she made in “the Mini” student exhibition at the Neidorff Art Gallery in the Dicke Art Building opening March 2!

Q: Do you have a favorite portion?

A: The relationships between each of four works in the exhibition is my favorite part. The show presents four works completed with four different processes and a range of materials. The show includes a mural sized acrylic on linen painting, a 7 by 4 foot sculpture made from marble and 2 by 4’s salvaged from a 1940’s home and cyanotype (the blue of cyanotype is the pigment Prussian blue). I select my materials and imagery for specific reasons, the historical research and exploration of materials is an important and exciting part of the process for me.

“The Blue Hour (a clock stopped)” will be on display until Sunday, May 7 in the Middle Gallery of Blue Star Contemporary.