With a professional background in the stark realism of matte painting for Hollywood, Jett’s fine art is a liberating expression of color and sensuality.
The questions of dimension, light, and technique remain the same, but her fine art subjects are sometimes ethereal and undefined: Love. Ecstasy. Inner light. Inspiration. She offers to be transported out of the physical world for the moment. It’s certainly what she experiences.
Born Caroleen Green to parents of European and Asian descent who met and married in Shanghai, Jett grew up in a working class neighborhood Southern California. She was a latchkey kid.
“My parents were really easy and laid back. They let me paint on my bedroom walls. They were always supportive when I made things or painted something. My dad especially was always thrilled to see what I was up to. I still paint on my walls.
“When I was about 17, I was inspired by a portrait done by a friend of the family. He was going to Art Center College of Design at the time. His piece was so beautiful and realistic, and I was touched by that.
“I started to draw objects and try to make them look realistic. This was the beginning. I soon became kind of obsessed with making art. It was the only thing in my life that made me feel like I had value and meaning, and it made my life feel rich and deep.”
Jett studied art at Art Center in Pasadena, privately with Ted Lukits, and later under the tutelage of film industry masters at George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic.
Painting on glass she created backgrounds for movies like Indiana Jones, Cocoon, Titanic, and Kurasawa’s Dreams. As the industry digitized, Photoshop became the tool of choice. See more of Jett’s work for movies on her matte painting website.
An actor, singer, and prolific fine artist, Jett’s energy seems unbounded. She took first place in an opera lip sync contest and designed her own mermaid queen float for Santa Barbara’s Solstice Parade complete with a giant clam shell draped with live seaweed. Jett’s film debut was in the independent film The Bet directed by Finola Hughes.
Her face framed by her handmade jewelry, her “customized” boots which are works of art themselves, and a visit to her studio all reveal a life of abundant creativity.
But painting, her first love, is the home she always returns to.
